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6/23/2021
Brightline West will wait until 2022 to request private activity bonds from Nevada and California to help fund its planned high-speed rail line from Las Vegas to Victorville, California.
The project was on track to break ground in 2020 before Brightline paused a planned bond offering late last year, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Brightline spokesman Ben Porritt said the coronavirus pandemic has slowed the planning for a proposed Rancho Cucamonga station that would link the Victorville station into downtown Los Angeles.
"The Brightline West team has made significant progress during the past year as California and Nevada dealt with the historic pandemic," Porritt said in a statement, according to the newspaper. "We are working with a number of partners and have great support in Nevada and California. COVID has impacted just about everyone, including our cooperating agencies and, as a result, we’ve shifted our timeline for this request to 2022."
The private activity bonds from Nevada would total $200 million, but under IRS guidelines, Brightline would be able to market them for up to four times that amount. Similarly, the company is seeking $600 million in private activity bonds from California, which also could be marketed for up to four times that amount, the newspaper reported.