Buy-America snag stalls Vegas high-speed rail plan
Jul 18, 2013, 7:10 AM
LOS ANGELES (AP) – The Obama administration is suspending its review of a $5.5 billion loan request that is part of a proposal to build a bullet train between Southern California and Las Vegas.
A snag has developed over where equipment to build and run the 150 mph train would be manufactured.
A June 28 U.S. Department of Transportation letter to developer XpressWest says loan recipients must buy steel, iron and other goods produced in the U.S.
But the letter says XPressWest’s proposal does not meet those rules and says the project faces other uncertainties. The agency released a copy of the letter Tuesday.
XpressWest is counting on the loan to fund most of the cost of building the train from the high desert town of Victorville to the Las Vegas Strip.
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