LAS VEGAS, Nevada: Construction has begun on a US$12 billion passenger bullet train linking Las Vegas and Los Angeles, considered the first true high-speed rail line in the U.S.

The private company building the line, Brightline West, predicts that millions of ticket-buyers will board the trains by 2028.

Before taking the stage with union representatives and company officials at the future site of a terminal to be built just south of the Las Vegas Strip, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said, “People have been dreaming of high-speed rail in America for decades. It is really happening this time.”

Buttigieg added that the Biden administration’s support for the project will create thousands of union jobs, boost local economies, and reduce traffic and air pollution.

Brightline West plans to lay 218 miles of new track close to Interstate 15 between Las Vegas and Rancho Cucamonga, California, connecting with a commuter rail network to downtown Los Angeles. A station also is planned in Victorville, San Bernardino County.

The goal is to have operational trains as fast as Japan’s Shinkansen bullet trains, with speeds exceeding 186 mph (300 kph), in time for the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.

Brightline Holdings founder Wes Edens said, “I believe we will look back at today and say, ‘This was the birth of an industry of high-speed rail.'”

Brightline has received financial support from the Biden administration, including a $3 billion grant from federal infrastructure funds and recent approval to sell another $2.5 billion in tax-exempt bonds. In 2020, it received federal authorization to sell $1 billion in similar bonds.

Electric-powered trains will cut the four-hour trip across the Mojave Desert to around two hours, Brightline West said, adding that it forecasts 11 million one-way passengers per year, with fares being comparable to airline ticket costs.