Another delay for the X-Train between Vegas and Southern California??
Management of the Las Vegas Railway Express sent out another email today to shareholders and those interested in the X Train project that will restore passenger train service between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles and Southern California market.
There was one line in the email which makes me think that the rail service will be delayed again. That one line refers to construction of the train station and platforms in the old Amtrak station behind The Plaza in Downtown Vegas. Here is the line:
"Approvals will take about 6 months before we can begin construction."
This means construction could not begin before mid-April. I have seen some of the plans for the project and I am sure that construction will not be an overnight thing. In other words, it won't be like Habitat for Humanity putting up a house in a weekend. I wouldn't be surprised if the construction takes three months to six months.
And then there is the issue of the train cars. That work could also go slowly and it's not slated to start until early 2013.
I think train service for the summer of 2013 is a real Vegas long shot. But what's a few more months? I will be very happy to take the train in the fall and winter of 2013 and still look forward to it.
Here are other parts of email that was sent:
Dear X Train Shareholders and fans:
Well, the long hot summer here in Las Vegas is over finally. And although the heat was turned up pretty high here, we had it turned up even higher on our project. We began our actual construction project on the station at the Plaza Hotel by hiring on our civil engineers, Walker Engineering, our General Contractor – R&O Construction, our Architects, Carpenter, Sellers, DelGatto, our rail engineers DeBerg & Associates as well as a host of ancillary professional staff with the City of Las Vegas. The civil engineering report was completed by Walker engineering and now identifies all infrastructure constraints on the site. We are now working with DeBerg to lay in the rail location and to orient the platform for speedy unloading. Approvals will take about 6 months before we can begin construction.
We acquired 10 railcars outright and have them parked in a rail yard in Wisconsin. The cars are bi-level designs which we will refurbish into our Vegas Class club lounge cars. The designs for the interiors are being done by Carpenter Sellers DelGatto, architects, and are very spiffy.
This is a working sample of one configuration which has a self-contained bar/lounge and food service area in each car and holds 40 people in complete comfort. (Photo not included) Other designs are in the works as well and we will show them to you as they are available. We will be acquiring additional rail cars to add to this set and expect to begin renovation after the first of the year 2013.
Our marketing efforts have gone into high gear with the addition of our COO- Passenger Services – Penny Stegeman. Penny comes from the Vegas ticketing business and the airline services business. In her first two calls to major properties here in town, both customers indicated they could fill a train all year with just their own clients. Pretty good start for us on that. We have a lot more to talk about with these folks, but both are extremely excited about being part of the project. No names as yet. That is still confidential, but we will make it public when it’s all done.
On the technology side, Bob Gottesman has come on board as our EVP/CIO and has two jobs he is responsible for. First he is the project manager for our development projects. This is like building the trip from the Earth to the Moon. Each project from station construction to car acquisition and build-out to logistics planning to IT systems is like a business of its own. I have attached Bob’s dashboard from the project management system so you can see what I’m talking about. It’s complicated, to say the least. We currently have about 400 tasks we manage. By the time the train runs, it will be 4,000.
We completed an offering of $2.28 million for the company. This capital allows us to proceed with the development of the station, electronics infrastructure and to acquire the railset for the first train. Our next mission is to organize for our larger offering later this year. We have moved the ball forward with the railroads and expect final logistics to be completed by November for both railroads. Amtrak was selected as our haulage partner and we are now working on the marketing and technical interface with their existing train network. You will be able to buy an X Train ticket at any one of the thousands of Amtrak kiosks nationwide. We will be carried on their national timetable as well.
