The Route 66 town of Victorville, Calif., is close to landing a $4.9 billion federal loan that would build a 150 mph bullet train line from there to Las Vegas, according to The Daily Mail and other news outlets.

The newspaper said about the DesertXpress propoal:

The vast park-and-ride project hinged on the untested idea that car-loving Californians will drive about 100 miles from the Los Angeles area, pull off busy Interstate 15 and board a train for the final leg to the Vegas strip. Planners imagine that millions of travelers a year will one day flock to a station outside Victorville, a small city where shuttered storefronts line the historic downtown. […] Victorville Mayor Ryan McEachron envisions a bustling transportation oasis with a hotel, restaurants, maybe even homes, on the proposed station site. […] The plan was being advanced by casino developer and contractor Anthony Marnell II, whose credits include building the Bellagio and Wynn Las Vegas. He heads Marnell Companies, the majority shareholder in DesertXpress. […] The parking lot in Victorville has room for 15,000 cars. At peak hours, trains would depart every 20 minutes. Mack said an average round-trip fare could be as low as $75, though documents estimated $100.

A decision on whether to give a go-ahead on the plan is expected later in the year.

It’s 180 miles from Victorville to Las Vegas. A high-speed train could traverse that distance through harsh desert and steep mountains in 90 minutes or less.

I’m agnostic about this proposal, although there’s little doubt it would help Victorville.

One person quoted in the story was skeptical about whether people would drive their cars so they could park, then ride a train. However, skeptics should note that the New Mexico Rail Runner Express, which goes from Albuquerque to Santa Fe, has seen a lot of ridership and is expanding its weekend service. And park-and-ride behavior is common with MetroLink lines in St. Louis and with the Chicago Transit Authority.

With the rising cost of fuel and ever-present traffic problems along Interstate 15, perhaps the time has come for a high-speed train to Vegas.