USC logo

LA to Vegas bullet train could move ahead with help from Chinese rail company

Published by USC Bedrosian Center on

Lisa Schweitzer, Associate Professor and Bedrosian Center faculty affiliate, spoke with KPCC’s Meghan McCarty today about an LA to Vegas high speed train. Regulatory approvals could be sticky:

“It’s California,” she said. “It’s hard to build a house here let alone high-speed rail.”

She said while getting the cash and expertise of the Chinese, who have built one of the biggest high-speed rail networks in the world, sounds like a good bet, there are significant obstacles to undertaking such a project here that might not be encountered in China.

“They’re dealing with endangered species, they’re dealing with people who have standing who can sue, they’re dealing with CEQA,” she said, referring to California’s rigorous and time-consuming environmental review process.

Read the full post here.

Bedrosian Center