China firms sign deal for high-speed Las Vegas-Los Angeles rail link

Press Release regarding high speed train from Los Angeles to Las Vegas BEIJING | BY BRENDA GOH A unit of China's CRRC Corp, the world's biggest train maker by revenue, on Thursday joined a group of its domestic peers in agreeing a deal to help build a high-speed link from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, underlining the rail giant's lofty overseas ambitions. Announced in a joint statement by the Chinese firms and U.S. partner XpressWest at a government forum in Beijing, the deal is the latest in a series of deeper Sino-American business ties to be unveiled before President Xi Jinping visits the United States next week. Computer maker Dell Inc said it will invest $125 billion in China, and new bilateral investment treaty offers have been exchanged. CRRC, formed from a state-driven merger of China's two largest train makers, is among a large group of the country's rail firms that has inked an accord for the project with XpressWest, a venture set up by Las Vegas-based hotel and casino developer Marnell Companies. Investment terms weren't disclosed. Gary Wong, a Hong Kong-based analyst at brokerage Guotai Junan, estimated that the project could be worth $5 billion. He said that although it would likely offer the many Chinese firms involved little financial benefit, it was significant for their long-term goals. "If this opens up the U.S. market for them, opportunities for future expansion will increase. And if (their technology) is used in the United States, it will be easier for them to sell to other countries," he said. CRRC is leading China's aggressive pursuit of overseas high-speed rail deals in competition with traditional suppliers such as Germany's Siemens AG and France's Alstom SA. Beijing recently clinched contracts in Russia, although it has faced hurdles in Mexicoand Indonesia due to bureaucratic flip-flops in those countries. US POTENTIAL The United States is a key target for China's rail industry, even though policymakers have been split over the need for high-speed rail and some have taken a dim view of Chinese involvement in potentially strategic deals. Most of a dozen or so U.S. projects lined up have struggled to gain traction, leaving the country far behind Europe and Asia in this area. XpressWest won the green light for the 230-mile high-speed line linking Los Angeles to Las Vegas in 2011 and applied for a federal loan in 2010, according to the company's website. It did not say whether its loan application had been successful. The U.S. company didn't respond to calls or emails seeking comment on the project after the partnership deal with the Chinese firms - grouped in a Nevada-based venture calledChina Railway International U.S.A. - was announced. XpressWest and the Chinese firms said in their statement that the accord would help accelerate the project without disclosing details of how it would achieve that. Additional regulatory approvals will be required before the construction begins, expected early as September 2016. "The United States market is huge because the fact is that their railway tracks and facilities are aging and need upgrading," Cao Gangcai, CRRC's vice chief economist, told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday, before the XpressWest deal was announced. The company plans to grow its share of revenue from work overseas to 30 percent within the next five years, he said. Having completed its merger in May, it booked first-half revenue of 91.8 billion yuan ($14.42 billion), only 12 percent of which was booked overseas. "We want to attain the position we deserve in the global market...There is no other company on earth that is able to simultaneously research and produce high-speed trains, electric multiple units, subways," he said.

HyperLoop Test Track in California

Elon Musk has has pushed the Hyperloop forward from a dream to a test track. The Hyperloop train is a proposal to move people and cars at super speeds (760 mph) via a tube system. You could move from San Francisco to Los Angeles in under 45 minutes and drive your car right away. It appears that Elon Musk’s “hyperloop” system will build a test track in Texas. Another developer is proposing to build a test track in Quay Valley in Kings County. Quay Valley has been a proposed sustainable community, or a modern 21st century town from the ground up. It runs along Hwy 5 in central California. Quay Valley is not unlike Centennial in Antelope Valley has proposed. This proposed hyperloop track will be slower and shorter than Musk’s Loop in Texas. This slower system will allow engineers to study the system to load and unloading people and movement of the system. They have the land and they indicate they have the money also. We continue to bring this up as a Hyperloop would be a less expensive alternative to the CalHighSpeed Rail.

Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk Plans to Build a 5 Mile Test Track for his Hyperloop Transportation System

Elon Musk is bringing the Hyperloop project closer to reality. He said recently that he is making plans to bring a testing facility for the ultra-fast Hyperloop system. It will likely be made in Texas and it will be approximately 5 miles long. The plan according to his tweet is to create pods connected to a train system and these pods will transport passengers and likely cars at hyper speeds between destinations. The system is based on creating a vacuum and theoretically transporting passengers from San Francisco to Los Angeles in under an hour. He said in his tweets that his Hyperloop track would be open to other companies and students “to test out their pods.” This is in direct competition to the CalHighSpeed Rail which has recently broken ground in Fresno with media hype and political backing from Democrats and Gov. Jerry Brown. The Hyperloop system is projected to cost billions less than the CalHighSpeed Rail, and the Hyperloop can transport your car and you.

Alas More Funds for The Cal High Speed Rail, But Will it Stop in Palmdale?

In 2008 voters approved nearly $10 billion in state bonds to fund the Cal High Speed Rail project under Proposition 1A and now this past month Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood took Florida’s $2 billion and gave it to 15 states and Amtrak. Florida’s new governor and legislator rejected their high speed rail. California’s $300 million Florida portion will be used to continue laying the groundwork for the nation’s first 220 mph high-speed rail system in the state. The initial plan according to federal and Rail officials would be to run along the Central Valley as it would be the least expensive to begin. This is an essentially part the Obama Administrations shovel ready projects. Thus the lion’s share of the $3.5 billion provided by the Obama administration must be spent on the rail line running between the tiny towns of Borden and Corcoran, Ca. Borden is outside of Merced and Corcoran is best known for its prison.
This can also be part of California’s continual poor planning as the CalHighSpeedRail Authority indicated earlier that there will be no ridership on the first phase. We believe they guarantee that with starting in sparsely populated Borden and Corcoran. Another issue that bogs the speedy trains is the disagreement with running the train from Bakersfield to Los Angeles via Lancaster and Palmdale Ca. Many including the LA Times want the direct route via Hwy 5 through the grapevine. They indicate it will save $1billion, and 30 miles. Yet, isn’t the trains objective to carry passengers? Bypassing Palmdale would eliminate potentially 700 thousand potential riders in Palmdale, Lancaster and Victorville. If the train is not potentially a commuter train, then why build it in urban areas like central LA, and San Jose, or it is only a train to compete with SouthWest airlines?
The final southern route into LA County will be debated, but there looks to be plenty of new opportunities along Hwy 99 as the Obama and Governor Brown administrations will not stand in the way of this moving train. Will it be a sign of more government waste by Democratic administrations, or a future jewel of the west U.S. Most land along Hwy 99 is farmland as we have been saying all along the farmers are the best long term land bankers of all time. Check out our land along the future potential route in Lancaster Ca. via www.vacantlanddeals.com so you can be a land banker too.

Is the California High-Speed Rail Coming Around the Corner?

AP Business news reported on Governor Swarzenegger’s trip to China promoting California products and tourism, but a main point on this overseas trip is to investigate high-speed rail technology and financing. The New York Times also reported in early April of this year about China negotiations with Sacramento to use their high speed rail technology to build the rail-line from Sacramento ultimately to San Diego. The proposed rail would initially be built from Los Angeles to Anaheim and San Francisco to San Jose and then expand from their (see cahighspeedrail.ca.gov). A future rail stop will also be in Palmdale Ca. In the AP News article the Governor was to travel from Shanghai to Nanjing using China’s speed train. Currently China has the world’s longest high-speed rail network spanning 4300 miles, and can run up to 220 miles per hour.

The Governor is also planning stops in Japan and South Korea to experience their high speed rail systems as they are also suitors to build the California Rail System. Interesting though South Korea and China learned the technology from France and Germany which have also presented proposals to Sacramento along with Italy and Spain. The Europeans are skeptical of Chinese technology, since its European grown, so there maybe some licensing issues. There may also be labor issues as Chinese labor laws do not favor the laborer. Yet, the Chinese have preliminarily agreed to abide by all US labor laws. The NY Times indicates the cooperation agreement would entail eighty percent of the components to come from American suppliers and assemble to be done in the US. A potential site would be the previous auto plant in Fremont Ca. thereby keeping most of the jobs in the State. The largest obstacle may be financing as the project is expected to cost $46 billion, but Chinese Banks may also be the solution. Up to $8 billion has already been pledged by the Federal Government as part of the Recovery Act. The Chinese have offered to also help further finance the project. Can the US afford such a large contribution in technology and financing from a foreign power? Can the State afford not to with 12 % unemployment? Would travelers actually take the train? There are many real issues that can derail this project, yet numerous governments are also fully behind it.

Many investors in Lancaster and Palmdale have been looking for signs of growth, so the potential for a rail line with the expansion of Solar and Wind technology in the Valley does show current and future expansion. The State Department of Finance is also expecting population growth from 2010-2015 to increase by 2 million and potentially an additional 18 million by 2040 with Southern California getting most of this growth. There looks to be speculative land opportunities still on the horizon, and Antelope Valley looks to benefit.

Biden says California is Prime Target for High Speed Rail Project

Although California is in a budget crisis, Vice President Joe Biden said that the state's high-speed rail project is well positioned to compete for a large share of the $8 billion that the Obama administration set aside in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for rail lines.

The planned high-speed rail system would commute passengers between Los Angeles and San Francisco in 2 hours and 40 minutes. The train would stop in Palmdale, Ca as a major stop, and it would be a major boost for the local economy, making access to the Antelope Valley even easier. California voters approved $9 billion in bonds for the project in the recent November election. The state hopes federal funding and the private sector will complete the expected $34 billion estimated budget, which is only the first phase, which would connect San Francisco to Anaheim. The second phase would further connect the total 800 miles from Sacramento to San Diego traveling primarily down the center of the State via Fresno and Bakersfield. Construction between Anaheim and San Francisco would take at least a decade, according to planners.

Reports indicate that the portion that initially applies to the Recovery Act criteria for high-speed rail would be the rail line between San Francisco to San Jose and Los Angeles to Anaheim. The administration is looking for “shovel ready” opportunities which entail having contracts awarded by 2012 and work completed by 2017.

The potential real estate impact for the Antelope Valley is years away, but it bodes well for towns just outside of major metropolitan areas. There will be vacant land opportunities up and down the State, and this is another example for buying land within the path of growth, and getting there before development creates the greatest percentage of growth. We will see how this all transpires, but the focus of California and the current administration is mass transit and near term employment opportunities.

Land investment on the Right side of the Tracks

California voters approved a $9.95 Billion bond to build a high speed rail system from Sacramento to San Diego on the recent November ballot. It can take a passenger from San Francisco to Los Angles is 2 hours 38 minutes with an estimated cost of fifty five dollars, or Sacramento to Los Angeles in 2 hours 17 minutes for fifty three dollars. The recent bond approval by voters initially allows up to 1 billion for local and regional rail upgrades that will connect to the future High Speed Train System (www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov). State Law requires that construction can’t begin until matching funds from outside sources are committed. In addition, it is estimated that the Federal Funding will provide $10 to $12 billion or 25 to 33 percent of the costs. This could be from the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act passed by Congress in 2007. This can also be part of what President Elect Barak Obama’s administration has proposed as the “New Big Deal”. The California High Speed Rail Authority expects construction to begin by 2011. The incoming President, Congress, the California State Governor and Legislature and now state voters are all in approval, so there appears to be nothing to stop this train now other than the actual funds. With all these forces in approval it looks inevitable that the funds will be found by 2011. This will be one of the largest government projects over the next twelve years.

This yields investor opportunities in stocks affiliated with construction and real estate values near the future rail system. Many areas along the six hundred mile route currently have sparse populations and depend on the agricultural industry. One of the future rails stops is in Palmdale, California in Los Angeles County. This is an area with a population of over three hundred thousand and an abundance of available inexpensive land. It is an area that has shown considerable growth over the decades, and will grow with or without the rail system providing investment growth security for speculators. Lance Dorman of Vacantlanddeals.com said “Land investors need to be on the right side of the tracks when investing on the future”. This looks to be a ripe opportunity to buy land and wait, while land prices are currently low. Real estate land prices all over California have dropped from their recent highs in 2006, and prices will definitely rise over time.