A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to Las Vegas

[tomikawaTT]

It seems that the scheduled Las Vegas Express (aka X-Train) has been downgraded to a charter temporarily planned to operate LA - San Diego on demand:

Shortened and paraphrased, since the link I posted doesn't seem to work:

The Las Vegas X-Press people exhibited their first two cars in Las Vegas, then announced that their plan for scheduled service to Las Vegas from LA had been downgraded to a party-charter plan when, as and if.  In the meantime, they will be offering party/charter service from LA to San Diego and return, their fancied-up cars attached to regularly scheduled Amtrak trains on an as-needed basis.  When (if ever) LA-Las Vegas service will start is contingent on getting BNSF agreement, UP agreement and their own locomotives.

The cars they have acquired will be stripped down and refurbished in Las Vegas, so at least that much will help my home town - assuming that the parent company doesn't default and leave the refurbisher holding the financial bag.

Scrolling down to the comments, the first comment was oviously typed by someone who hasn't been to Las Vegas.  (I-15 and Craig Road is an industrial area, not, "The hood.")  The others all pretty much said what I have commented on this subject on this forum.  This is a harebrained scheme that's powering up to run 8 for a quick trip to oblivion.

Chuck (Las Vegas resident)

[K. P. Harrier]

Chuck:

Sounds somewhat interesting but very confusing … Compounding the confusion is that the link when turned into a link brings up “Page not found.”

Disappointed,

K.P.

[tomikawaTT]

K.P.

My apologies for the non-working link.  I found the article buried in an odd corner of the NBC News site.

I have edited my initial post to include the key points of the new, improved(???) X-train scheme.

Chuck

[K. P. Harrier]

Chuck:

Over the years (many years) I’ve heard proposals and efforts to run on UP a Los Angeles-Las Vegas passenger train.  But, nothing ever comes about.  Not even Amtrak with its Desert Wind was able to make a go of it.  So, I seriously double the X-Train people will be able to work miracles.

Buses seem to work, and their transit times way outruns railroading Los Angeles-Las Vegas.  The only other possibility that would work, and smashingly so, would be a “beam me up Scotty” effort.  Even I might take that!

So, the 70 M.P.H. fast-running (halfway out your way) …

… and cuts (like at Sloan) …

… will continue only to see freights, except for the occasional 79 M.P.H. UP internal passenger runs which oftentimes have dome cars on them …

.. as the one pictured above by the Etiwanda-Kaiser area of the Sunset Route here in Southern California.

Enjoy your cool area to live in, but unfortunately, I think it will eternally be without passenger service.

Best,

K.P.

[daveklepper]

glad I rode the CofLA (twice) and the Desert Wind, when I did!

[Anonymous]

what did not work yesterday might work tomorrow, tomorrow never comes if u do not buy tickets. the Marlboro train never ran but sounded good!! HOPR SPRINGES ETERNAL IN SUNNY FLORIDA.

[MikeF90]

I've been watching this 'project' for a couple of years and agree with assessments that believe it is a 'pump and dump' penny stock scheme. Last time I checked their market cap was ludricrously small. The principals don't have passenger rail experience and the managers who do are probably very part time window dressing. Here is their web site; the blog section is especially hilarious:

http://www.vegasxtrain.com/

Anyone casually familiar with railroad ops will notice glaring deficiencies in their 'business plan'.

- No defined facilities to turn the train in Southern California. Trains don't fix and stock themselves.

- Metrolink connections are trumpeted but the proposed schedule is incompatible (no late night MLNK Sunday service). The forecast is gridlock near the downtown Fullerton parking garages.

And on and on ...

LVRE had to make a very large 'ernest' payment to UP which was probably missed. Reportedly they blamed BNSF for not reaching an agreement, which sounds suspicious given the major improvements on the Cajon and San Bernardino subs since the end of the Desert Wind.

tomikawaTT

 This is a harebrained scheme that's powering up to run 8 for a quick trip to oblivion.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

[MikeF90]

Latest from the X-Train masters of 3 Card Monty - they have completed a 'study' with some UNLV professor who really should know better than to associate with these criminals.

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/marketwire/1152818.htm

http://www.vegasxtrain.com/unlv-rail-engineering-program.html

This 'study' indicates that they might pursue an alternate, less traveled  route to Lost Wages from Los Angeles via Mojave and Barstow. Lessee, now they have to include Metrolink in the mix and use single track UP and BNSF lines about 35 miles longer than Cajon Pass routing. This is better? 

Too bad they've blown all of their penny stock market cap. They might have done better proposing with BNSF to get off in San Bernardino and terminate on Metrolink in north Pomona - plenty of room at Fairplex. Oh well.

If this whole project wasn't so pathetic, I would have moved my X-Train bookmark from the Railfan folder to the Humor folder a long time ago ....

[Deggesty]

Ah, we still have mention of existing passenger service. Do these people know something that I (and all the other contributors to these forums) do not know?

Is this information about Dr. Teng for real? Does he know and understand the railroad situation in Las Vegas?

[cacole]

tomikawaTT

It seems that the scheduled Las Vegas Express (aka X-Train) has been downgraded to a charter temporarily planned to operate LA - San Diego on demand:

Chuck (Las Vegas resident)

 

 

They apparently don't realize that there is already a light rail system with modern trolley cars running between San Diego and Los Angeles almost hourly, plus some regularly scheduled Amtrak trains.

[erikem]

cacole

They apparently don't realize that there is already a light rail system with modern trolley cars running between San Diego and Los Angeles almost hourly, plus some regularly scheduled Amtrak trains.

 

Where is this light rail you're talking about - is this the proposed PE San Diego Extension that was going to compete with the SDERy's La Jolla line?

Amtrak has near hourly schedules in the morning and late afternoon, but it is certainly not light rail. On the other hand, I did see a NCTD Sprinter train win a drag with ATK #582 out of Oceanside this evening from a seat on #582.

[Murphy Siding]

     Where is the need for this service?  I can hop a plane in Sioux Falls, S.D. occasionaly on a Las Vegas special, and be losing money before the sun goes down.  What's the lure of it taking longer to get there?

[MikeF90]

@Murphy Siding, as an LA resident I would welcome an alternative to the TSA's airport security theatre tacked on to expensive airfare, and the now often gridlocked I-15 to and from Las Vegas.

@cacole and others, the San Diego charter proposal was two scams ago. Then came the short lived Santa Fe operation.  Now back to the Mojave detour ...

I'd like to see actual traffic modeling of the Cajon routing to see what the freight RR concerns are. For further reference, here are maps of the BNSF Cajon sub and UP Cima sub.

IMO a competent, RR experienced operator with sufficient financial backing could have negotiated a reasonable outcome with BNSF and UP, and LVRE is neither.  

[Semper Vaporo]

Murphy Siding

     Where is the need for this service?  I can hop a plane in Sioux Falls, S.D. occasionaly on a Las Vegas special, and be losing money before the sun goes down.  What's the lure of it taking longer to get there?

 

You get to keep your money longer!  And maybe not lose any at all if Amtrek gets delayed long enough that you have to return home before you are late getting back to work from your vacation.

[Murphy Siding]

     With the proliferation of Indian casinos, riverboat casinos, historic city casinos (Deadwood, SD)  Iowa casinos, etc....  why have a train to Vegas?  What's to stop development of a casino train?  Loose your money without the added burden of getting a hotel room in Vegas.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

There is a cachet about going to Lost Wages that dates back to the beginnings of the Strap that the riverboats, Indian casinos, etc. just don't have.  My wife and I have been to the desert several times without ever gambling a penny (it's true) and enjoy the shows, Red Rock Canyon, watching other people lose their shirts, etc.  I even made a day trip to Barstow on our last trip.

[chutton01]

CSSHEGEWISCH

There is a cachet about going to Lost Wages that dates back to the beginnings of the Strip that the riverboats, Indian casinos, etc. just don't have. 

This is true, Las Vegas has made itself a destination. Just compare with Atlantic City which didn't really go beyond Casinos when it was the only 'game' in the North East (1970s thru 1990s), and which now, mostly due to the opening of rival Casinos in Pennsylvania and Racinos in New York, is crashing and burning with 4 casinos closing just this year.
Let's put it this way - a high speed rail service between LA and LV looks like a real winner...on paper. As ACES originally did too...

[MikeF90]

Just came across some bizarre penny stock 'analysis' on 1stheadlines.com :

http://www.microcapdaily.com/las-vegas-railway-express-otcmktsxtrn-welcome-to-the-x-train/18742/

The lead goes: Las Vegas Railway Express (OTCMKTS:XTRN) is moving up well after a test of the stock made a new all time-low of $0.0006.  That's not a misprint - six ten thousandths of one cent per share.

The closing sentence states: This is a Company with an exciting business plan that has captured Investors imaginations trading just over its all-time lows of $0.0011. XTRN is a stock to watch.  

How can they 'say' this with a straight face, except through mind-numbing total ignorance of the actual operation? 

[Electroliner 1935]

How? "There's a sucker born every minute" is a phrase most likely spoken by David Hannum, in criticism of both P. T. Barnum & his customers (See Wikipedia) and it applies to this. 

[MikeF90]

In more 'pump and dump' news, an unnamed X-Train employee has posted on their Facebook page that "This year we have refocused our intention back to what we started...LA to Vegas." 

We'll see ......

[MikeF90]

Sorry to interrupt your respectful rememberances of our WWII veterans today but

It's baaccckkk! The Los Angeles - Las Vegas fantasy train, that's what ....

The same cast of scammers characters is bringing back this "project" under the Las Vegas Xpress brand:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/united-rail-inc-launches-las-120000790.html

Interestingly, they're recycling the old X Train web site:

https://www.vegasxtrain.com/the-team.html

Buy low, sell, uh

https://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/LVXI/overview

Oh, the humanity.

[kgbw49]

I think if they make it, it will end up being known as "The X", which is an appropriate moniker for a train to the state that pioneered the no-fault quickie divorce.

(Ducks and runs for cover...)

[Overmod]

For much more amusement, look at the Web site of the 'parent':

https://unitedrailinc.com/

Clever use of the nouveau buzzword 'precision', eh?

I have to wonder exactly what the state of repair of their 16 bilevels is now, and who would contract with them to 'rejuvenate' what's necessary.  Hard to imagine if they get the amenities right (including perhaps the casino-sponsored rolls of coins or tokens) they can't get a trainload worth of marks every day...

[MikeF90]

The desparate carny folk are still pushing their train:

https://www.reviewjournal.com/business/tourism/las-vegas-xpress-train-project-plans-for-2021-launch-date-2086091/

Gonna need a lot more popcorn .....