STB confirms jurisdiction over DesertXpress

The federal Surface Transportation Board today reaffirmed its jurisdiction over DesertXpress, a planned high-speed rail line linking Las Vegas and Victorville, Calif.

Supporters of a rival rail
service proposal had asked the Board to reopen and reverse its 2007 decision.
The California-Nevada Super Speed Train Commission and the American Magline
Group, who want to build a magnetic levitation transportation system largely
along the same corridor, contend that DesertXpress’s project is not within the Board’s
jurisdiction over interstate commerce and the national rail system because the
DesertXpress project would not directly connect to any other rail line.

But the Board said that the
California-Nevada Super Speed Train Commission and the American Magline Group
had not identified any new evidence or changed circumstances that would justify
revisiting the 2007 decision. "Moreover, federal regulation of rail
transportation in interstate commerce is intended to avoid a patchwork of
conflicting and parochial regulatory actions that impede the flow of people and
goods throughout the nation," the decision said. "We have reviewed the
statutory mandates that underlie the need for uniformity and consistency of interstate
commerce regulation, and have concluded that these considerations require
federal oversight of interstate passenger rail construction projects."

DesertXpress, a privately
financed group of companies, plans to construct and operate an approximately
200-mile passenger rail line between California and Las Vegas. The planned
route would largely be along Interstate 15. In March 2009, the Federal Railroad
Administration issued a draft environmental impact statement on the project.
DesertXpress said it intends to apply to the Board for permission to construct
and operate the line at the conclusion of the environmental review process.

The Board held an oral
hearing on the matter on Oct. 27, 2009.

The full decision in the
case, DesertXpress Enterprises, LLC-Petition for Declaratory Order, STB Finance
Docket No. 34914 (http://www.stb.dot.gov/decisions/readingroom.nsf/WebDecisionID/40043?OpenDocument).