Bechtel Submits Lone Bid for Las Vegas Super Train

Bechtel International Inc. submitted the lone proposal Monday for a $5-billion, 300-m.p.h. train between Anaheim and Las Vegas--a proposal one Los Angeles official said made “no sense at all.”

At press conferences in Las Vegas and Santa Ana, officials of the giant San Francisco-based engineering firm said private financing will be dependent on future feasibility studies. The proposal includes a frictionless, non-polluting train, propelled and raised off its guideway by electromagnetic currents.

The California-Nevada Super Speed Ground Transportation Commission had set Monday as the deadline for submitting proposals for the rail line.

Last week two other firms, Morrison-Knudsen and Bombardier Corp., pulled out of the competition, saying the lack of public financing for environmental planning made the project “excessively risky” to would-be financial backers.

Bechtel officials said they expect C. Itoh Co. of Japan to be a key financial partner, providing funds from Japanese investors. The proposal also envisions Amtrak providing operation, maintenance and marketing services for a fee.

Bechtel also met the commission’s requirement Monday of a $500,000 good-faith deposit.

The 265-mile project faces many hurdles, including environmental clearances, approval by both state legislatures and governors, and further feasibility studies after the bistate panel awards a franchise, probably in August.

“We have reached a very important plateau in the development and operation of the California-Nevada Super Speed Train process,” said Las Vegas City Councilman Arnie Adamsen, who chairs the bistate commission. “It is exciting to know that within seven years, millions of people could be riding a relatively noiseless, pollution-free vehicle across the California-Nevada terrain at speeds approaching 300 m.p.h.”

But the Bechtel proposal drew a chilly reception from Los Angeles officials, who want a westward spur across the Mojave Desert to Los Angeles-owned Palmdale Airport. The spur eventually would be extended south to Los Angeles International Airport.

They see the fast train as the long-sought key to opening the desert airport, relieving crowded LAX and easing commuter congestion along the Antelope Valley and San Diego freeways.

But Bechtel included the requested 41-mile Victor Valley-to-Palmdale line as no more than a “possible future spur.” Bechtel’s plan “would bypass the major population center of Los Angeles County, and that makes no sense at all,” said Bill Chandler, Mayor Tom Bradley’s press secretary.

In sharp contrast to the Los Angeles reaction, Orange County Supervisor Don Roth, the commission’s vice chairman and a zealous proponent of the magnetic-levitation train, unabashedly referred to receipt of Bechtel’s proposal as a signal event in transportation history.

Angie Papadakis of Long Beach, also a commission member, said Bechtel’s proposal is “going to propel us into the 21st Century.