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Last week, Teamsters Rail Conference officials issued a letter to U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood stating their support for the DesertXpress high-speed rail project.

The proposed corridor would link the Los Angeles area and Las Vegas with trains operating at speeds up to 150 mph. Trains could make the trip in about 80 minutes versus the four-hour drive time.

'If properly funded, the DesertXpress/XpressWest project will provide good middle-class jobs for tens of thousands of Americans in the southwestern United States," wrote Teamsters Rail Conference President Dennis Pierce in the letter.

The conference represents more than 70,000 locomotive engineers, trainmen and maintenance-of-way workers in the United States through two member unions: the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, and Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division.