Las Vegas, NV | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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General information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Location | 100 South Main Street Las Vegas, NV 89101 United States | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Coordinates | 36°10′20″N115°08′50″W / 36.172355°N 115.147114°W | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Owned by | Plaza Hotel & Casino | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Line(s) | Union Pacific Railroad | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Platforms | 1 side platform | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tracks | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
History | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Opened | July 7, 1979 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Closed | May 12, 1997 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Former services | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Las Vegas station was a passenger railroad station in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was connected to the rear of the Plaza Hotel & Casino and was in service from 1971 until the demise of the Desert Wind in 1997. [1]
Prior to the construction of the casino, part of the site was used for a Streamline Moderne train station. [2] Constructed in 1940, the station was upgraded with neon lights in 1946. [3]
The station served several Union Pacific trains a day, due for Los Angeles to the west and Salt Lake City, then St. Louis and Chicago to the east. In 1954 early morning departures, the City of Los Angeles and the City of St. Louis headed to Los Angeles headed from the station, and afternoon and evening trains, the Challenger and the Gold Coast-Pony Express departed for Los Angeles. [4] All of these trains, save for the Gold Coast, lasted until Amtrak assumed responsibility for the Union Pacific's passenger operations in May 1971.
This station was demolished in 1971 and replaced by the Union Plaza Hotel, which included a small waiting room to be used as a station for Amtrak trains.
The Union Plaza Hotel and Casino, originally called the Union Plaza in reference to the Union Pacific railroad station that stood at the site, opened on July 2, 1971. Its original owners included local business people Sam Boyd, Howard Cannon, Jackie Gaughan, and Frank Scott.
Passenger service returned briefly in 1976 with Amtrak's Las Vegas Limited and in 1979 with the Desert Wind.
Before the discontinuation of the Desert Wind train route on May 10, 1997, Amtrak's Las Vegas station was located at the Plaza. The station and ticket windows were directly connected to the hotel. It was the only train station in the U.S. located in a casino.
Today, Las Vegas is served by Greyhound Bus from the Salt Lake City Intermodal Hub in Salt Lake City, Utah to Los Angeles Union Station. Greyhound provided service to a station on the first floor of the Plaza Hotel until 2021, when service moved to the South Strip Transit Terminal near Harry Reid International Airport. [5]
Amtrak planned for restoration of Las Vegas rail service surfaced almost immediately after the discontinuation of the Desert Wind. These plans recommended using Talgo trains between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, similar to Amtrak's Cascades route in the Pacific Northwest.[ citation needed ] This plan was never implemented and Las Vegas went without passenger rail service. Las Vegas is the largest metro area in the US without passenger rail service.
In 2005 DesertXpress Enterprises LLC was formed in an attempt to restore passenger rail service to Las Vegas Valley, though their terminal is planned to be a newly constructed station in Enterprise, south of Downtown Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Strip. [6] The project was acquired by Florida-based Brightline and changed its name to Brightline West in 2020.
A competing company, Las Vegas Railway Express, also plans to begin passenger rail service between Las Vegas and Southern California, though at lower speeds. [7]
Los Angeles Union Station is the main train station in Los Angeles, California, and the largest passenger rail terminal in the Western United States. It opened in May 1939 as the Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal, replacing La Grande Station and Central Station.
The Salt Lake City Union Pacific Depot is a building on the western edge of downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. Built in 1908–09, it dates back to the more prosperous era in the history of American railroad travel. As Salt Lake Union Pacific Railroad Station, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The City of Los Angeles was a streamlined passenger train between Chicago, Illinois, and Los Angeles, California via Omaha, Nebraska, and Ogden, Utah. Between Omaha and Los Angeles it ran on the Union Pacific Railroad; east of Omaha it ran on the Chicago and North Western Railway until October 1955 and on the Milwaukee Road thereafter. The train had number 103 westbound and number 104 eastbound.
The Desert Wind was an Amtrak long-distance passenger train that ran from 1979 to 1997. It operated from Chicago to Los Angeles as a section of the California Zephyr, serving Los Angeles via Salt Lake City; Ogden, Utah; and Las Vegas.
San Jose Diridon station is the central passenger rail depot for San Jose, California. It also serves as a major intermodal transit center for Santa Clara County and Silicon Valley. The station is named after former Santa Clara County Supervisor Rod Diridon Sr.
The Plaza Hotel & Casino is a hotel and casino located in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada. It currently has 995 rooms and suites, an 80,000-square-foot (7,400 m2) casino and more than 25,000 square feet (2,300 m2) of event space. The Plaza Hotel also has a showroom, rooftop swimming pool, fitness center, bingo room, restaurants, a sports bar, and Oscar's Steakhouse, named after the former Mayor of Las Vegas, Oscar Goodman.
Plans for high-speed rail in the United States date back to the High-Speed Ground Transportation Act of 1965. Various state and federal proposals have followed. Despite being one of the world's first countries to get high-speed trains, it failed to spread. Definitions of what constitutes high-speed rail vary, including a range of speeds over 110 mph (180 km/h) and dedicated rail lines. Inter-city rail with top speeds between 90 and 125 mph is sometimes referred to in the United States as higher-speed rail.
The California–Nevada Interstate Maglev project was a proposed 269 mi (433 km) Maglev train line from Las Vegas, Nevada, to Anaheim, California. One segment would run from Las Vegas to Primm, Nevada, with proposed service to the Las Vegas area's forthcoming Ivanpah Valley Airport. The top speed would be 310 mph (500 km/h). Though $45 million was appropriated in 2005 for the planning phase for the first 40 mi (64 km) segment, the money was never spent, and was finally reallocated to a highway project in a Las Vegas Airport in June 2010. The maglev project was not in the 2012 transportation plan under consideration by the Southern California Association of Governments. Removing it from the plan means that the project cannot receive federal funds, even for studies. The Southern California Association of Governments did leave a small portion of the route – from Anaheim to Ontario – in their 2012 transportation plan.
The Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad was a rail company in California, Nevada, and Utah in the United States, that completed and operated a railway line between its namesake cities, via Las Vegas, Nevada. Incorporated in Utah in 1901 as the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad, the line was largely the brainchild of William Andrews Clark, a Montana mining baron and United States Senator. Clark enlisted the help of Utah's U.S. Senator Thomas Kearns, mining magnate and newspaper man, to ensure the success of the line through Utah. Construction of the railroad's main line was completed in 1905. Company shareholders adopted the LA&SL name in 1916. The railway was also known by its official nickname, "The Salt Lake Route", and was sometimes informally referred to as "The Clark Road". The tracks are still in use by the modern Union Pacific Railroad, as the Cima, Caliente, Sharp, and Lynndyl Subdivisions.
Bakersfield station is an intermodal facility in Bakersfield, California. It is the southern terminus of Amtrak California's San Joaquins route, with Amtrak Thruway buses continuing to Amtrak stations and bus stops throughout Southern California and Nevada. The station opened with a celebration on July 4, 2000. It contains an 8,300-square-foot (770 m2) train station with two platforms and three tracks, as well as a 17-bay bus station.
Brightline West is a privately run high-speed rail route, currently under construction, to link the Las Vegas Valley and Rancho Cucamonga in Greater Los Angeles through the California high desert. The line will connect with existing rail at Rancho Cucamonga station of Metrolink's San Bernardino Line, a commuter rail line in Southern California. The project is intended to provide an alternative to air and automobile travel between Southern California and Las Vegas, a popular leisure destination. In December 2023, the United States Department of Transportation awarded Brightline West a $3 billion grant as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Construction, initially expected to begin shortly after the grant was announced in 2023, began on April 22, 2024. Revenue service is planned to start in 2028.
The Victor Valley Transportation Center is an intermodal transit center in Victorville, California. It is served by the daily Amtrak Southwest Chief train, as well as Greyhound Lines intercity buses and Victor Valley Transit Authority local buses.
The Salt Lake City Intermodal Hub, also called Salt Lake Central station by the Utah Transit Authority (UTA), is a multi-modal transportation hub in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States served by the Blue Line of UTA's TRAX light rail system that operates in Salt Lake County and by the FrontRunner, UTA's commuter rail train that operates along the Wasatch Front with service from Ogden in central Weber County through Davis County, Salt Lake City, and Salt Lake County to Provo in central Utah County. Service at the intermodal hub is also provided by Amtrak, and Greyhound Lines, as well as UTA local bus service.
Caliente station is a historic Mission Revival style railway station, located in Caliente, Nevada, United States. The station is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Caliente Railroad Depot, and is Nevada Historical Marker number 249.
The Las Vegas Limited was a short-lived weekend-only passenger train operated by Amtrak between Los Angeles, California, and Las Vegas, Nevada. It was the last in series of excursion trains run by Amtrak between 1972–1976 serving the Los Angeles–Las Vegas market. Low patronage led to the train's withdrawal after three months. Amtrak returned to the Las Vegas market in 1979 with the Desert Wind, a daily train between Los Angeles and Ogden, Utah.
Transportation in the Las Vegas Valley including the Nevada cities of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson is a multi-faceted system. The street system is mostly laid out in a north–south/east–west system of roads. While most residents rely on cars, there is a network of bus routes reaching some areas of the county. The Las Vegas Valley, being the one of the largest tourist destinations in the world, has a mass transportation system which favors the Las Vegas Strip.
Las Vegas Railway Express, branded as "X Train," is an American rail transport company that plans to operate passenger rail service between Southern California and Las Vegas, Nevada. In May 2017, the Las Vegas Railway Express sold its operation and branding to X Rail Entertainment. In October 2018, the Las Vegas Railway Express proposed to change its name to United Rail Inc. In November 2018, the company chose First Transit Group to operate the train, but as of August 2019, the company was in talks with Amtrak to operate the train.
The California Zephyr is a long-distance passenger train operated by Amtrak between Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area, via Omaha, Denver, Salt Lake City, and Reno. At 2,438 miles (3,924 km), it is Amtrak's longest daily route, and second-longest overall after the Texas Eagle's triweekly continuation from San Antonio to Los Angeles, with travel time between the termini taking approximately 511⁄2 hours. Amtrak claims the route as one of its most scenic, with views of the upper Colorado River valley in the Rocky Mountains, and the Sierra Nevada. The modern train is the second iteration of a train named California Zephyr; the original train was privately operated and ran on a different route through Nevada and California.
Las Vegas station is the planned northern terminus of Brightline West, a proposed high-speed rail service. The station will be located on the south Las Vegas Strip in the unincorporated town of Enterprise, Nevada. The 33-acre (13 ha) site will feature retail, restaurants, connections to other transportation, and a large parking garage. Construction began on April 22, 2024, with rail operations starting in 2028.
Victor Valley is a future high-speed rail station of Brightline West, running to Las Vegas Boulevard in the Las Vegas Valley and south to Rancho Cucamonga.