Maglev Stops (And Starts) At Ivanpah

Ivanpah Valley Airport - the proposed new international airport in Southern Nevada - is presently going through the slow, but steady, steps of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process.

Ivanpah Valley Airport - if approved for construction - will become in the long run a very significant airport that will handle 30 to 35 million annual passengers.

Maglev train illustration by Nathan Fariss.

Ivanpah will accommodate the aviation industry's most modern and infrastructure-sensitive aircraft. The airport will be situated on the border of heavily populated Clark County in Nevada and San Bernardino County in California.

Ivanpah Airport will become one of the largest government construction projects in recent memory, and, when open around 2018, will immediately shift air transportation plans of millions of people each year.

Aside from McCarran International in Las Vegas and Los Angeles International, there will be a dramatic and intriguing new choice: located between the two long-established airports will be the new and potentially exciting Ivanpah Valley Airport at the southern border of California and Nevada.

By Robert L. Candiotti, July 11, 2009

For the past few months, there have been many articles in the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Sun newspapers about the competing train proposals for high-speed train travel between Southern Nevada and Southern California.

The numerous articles about the two different possible train systems have been interesting and informative.

However, other than a two word inclusion - "Ivanpah Airport" - as a proposed maglev stop for the new airport, there was no mention at all of the importance of Ivanpah Valley Airport in future transportation demands of the region.

The Record of Decision (ROD) of the Environmental Impact Statement regarding Ivanpah Airport is scheduled for the second half of 2010.

Any firm decision on how to proceed with a new train system should be withheld until the future of Ivanpah Valley Airport is ruled upon. If Ivanpah Airport becomes just the third new international airport in the U.S. over the past 50 years, it is going to merit the most visionary and futuristic ground transportation systems in the Southern California-Southern Nevada region.

Ivanpah Valley Airport will require for robust success very fast accessibility between the desert and the sea. Also, if transportation is fast enough, easy enough and enjoyable enough from California's San Bernardino and Riverside counties to Ivanpah Airport, 40 miles south of Las Vegas, many long-haul air travelers will choose Ivanpah over LAX.

Proposed route of the maglev between Las Vegas, Nevada, and Anaheim, California.

Ivanpah Valley Airport will require for robust success very fast accessibility between the desert and the sea.

Ivanpah will have a much different feeling than McCarran, which is located within Las Vegas. Of course, a large number of Las Vegas-Henderson residents will use the new international airport, but Ivanpah will be exterior to Las Vegas, and it will have its own connectedness because it will be 40 miles south of the urban network of Southern Nevada.

Though within the conception of the "Las Vegas area," Primm and Jean, Nevada, and Ivanpah Valley Airport, will have their own definition and their own destiny.

Maglev train at night.

Approval of Ivanpah Valley Airport toward the end of 2010 may be just enough to tip the balance in favor of the Las Vegas-Anaheim maglev.

The maglev will absolutely have to have a stop at Ivanpah Airport. If Ivanpah Airport gets the OK for construction, that could be the needed impetus for the creation of the world's most extraordinary maglev running between Las Vegas and Anaheim.

Quite a bit that has been written about the Anaheim-Las Vegas super-fast maglev versus the Victorville-Las Vegas high-speed DesertXpress controversy has to do with the difference in construction costs.

DesertXpress may be less expensive, but how will it function in the long run? How will it complement and enhance Ivanpah Valley Airport?

The maglev will assuredly be more expensive to construct, but that needs to be measured against its potential for the future.

In an interview with U.S. secretary of transportation Ray LaHood by Amanda Ruggeri of U.S. News & World Report, published July 2, 2009, LaHood says today's description of transportation trends requires the term "transformational."

In Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, transformation is defined as a change of variables. It is an altering of rules. It is a rotation of realities. LaHood includes in his definition of transformational transportation pending projects for both airports and high-speed rail.

This is why the train system between California and Nevada - especially if Ivanpah is built - should be something unlike what has ever come before.

Right now, there is an amount of $8 billion in the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act for high-speed rail in the nation. That certainly is not enough to build a 300 mile-per-hour maglev route between Anaheim and Las Vegas.

However, LaHood seems to suggest there is more to come. "It's an excellent start," he says when talking talking about stimulus billions for transportation.

A lot will be riding (literally and figuratively) on the Record of Decision of the Environmental Impact Statement for Ivanpah Valley Airport.

Without Ivanpah, considering its costs for construction, the maglev will be most likely be fighting a steep uphill battle for approval. But, if the new airport gets an OK in the second half of 2010, a successful and vibrant Ivanpah will need extraordinary connectivity. The maglev, though very expensive, will be recognized for its mystique, its appropriateness, its long-term viability and its "transformational" qualities.

This is why a decision on moving ahead with a new Southern California-Southern Nevada train system should be postponed until after the Ivanpah Valley Airport EIS Record of Decision in 2010.

It is probably not too extreme to say the maglev stops, and starts, at Ivanpah.

   In an interview with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood by Amanda Ruggeri of U.S. News & World Report,
                                    published July 2, 2009, LaHood says today's description of transformational trends is "transformational."

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