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Visiting Las Vegas, Nevada, is a regular occurrence for many Southern California residents. Whether it’s a road trip to experience some of the more family-friendly attractions or a long weekend for a bachelor/bachelorette party, few are strangers to Sin City. The only drag is the (typically) four-hour drive it takes to get there if you’re venturing from the Los Angeles area. Flying is easily the quickest mode of transportation, with a typical flight not taking much longer than an hour, but getting through airport traffic, TSA, and waiting to take off, you might as well drive.

You could take a train, but a five-hour train ride is worse than four hours in a car. With no high-speed rail to speak of, those are the only options. However, for six years, Brightline West has been working to make a high-speed train from L.A., California, to Las Vegas, Nevada, a reality, and now there’s an end date in sight. It won’t be complete until late 2029, which is worse than the original 2028 projection, but to have a train that can travel 200 mph — significantly faster than any Amtrak trains – and get passengers to Sin City in roughly two hours, it will be a welcome wait.

Brightline West’s all-electric train will travel on a 218-mile track that will connect to Metrolink’s system that traverses the downtown Los Angeles area, but the flagship station will be in Las Vegas. There will be additional stations in Apple Valley, Hesperia, and Rancho Cucamonga.

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Brightline is a well-known company name around Central and South Florida, as its trains run daily from Miami to Orlando. In 2018, it bought the company Express West, opening up a pathway for Brightline to make its debut on the West Coast. California approved a rail line that would travel from Victorville, California, to Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2020, which Brightline West would oversee. Unfortunately, Covid-19 forced the company to push construction back to 2022, pushing the U.S. further behind the rest of the world in high-speed rail.

Then, in 2023, the Federal Department of Transportation decided to help get the ball rolling and awarded $3 billion to Brightline West. Former President Joe Biden even visited the site where the flagship station in Vegas will be to say, “It’s on track to be completed by the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles,” per Fox5 Las Vegas on YouTube.

Brightline West finally broke ground in 2024 and spent 2025 conducting field work to prepare maintenance facilities, as well as the median along Interstate 15, where the rail will be positioned. As of 2026, the parking structure for the Vegas station is well underway, with a good chunk of it completed. Once the company finally has the median of the I-15 and the land around it prepared, it will be able to place the rail.