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Fully integrated transportation systems that include automobiles, buses and trains will be needed
for Ivanpah Valley Airport travelers to get to and from the airplanes.
MARCH 1, 2008...LATE BREAKING NEWS...
BULLET TRAINS NOW CONNECT MADRID AND BARCELONA, SPAIN, THE COUNTRY'S TWO LARGEST CITIES!
On February 20, 2008, an impressive
bullet train route linking Madrid and Barcelona, Spain, began operations after years of controversy and construction.
Reaching speeds of 180 mph, a total of 17 Renfe trains - each able to carry around 200 people - are now operating
daily between the two major Spanish cities.
Round trip tickets start at $240, and the 342 mile trip takes only
two and a half hours. The very quick trains can now actually compete with airlines for the heavily traveled route between
Madrid and Barcelona.
As is reported in the February 21, 2008, issue of TIMESONLINE, "Almost unnoticed
by the outside world, Spain has engaged in a frenzy of high-speed rail building in recent years and is fast catching up with
the world leaders, France and Japan. By 2010, the Government claims, Spain will have the most extensive high-speed rail network
in the world."
Spain's and France's rail systems are expected to link up in 2012 to make it actually
possible to travel by high-speed train from London all the way to Costa del Sol. If, by 2020, according to TIMESONLINE, Spain
achieves its goal of constructing 10,000 km of high speed track, 90 per cent of the Spanish population will live within 50km
of a high-speed train station.
If all this can be accomplished in Spain, one would think similar forward-looking
construction can be achieved in Nevada and California. The high-speed train developments in Europe are related to the
article below:
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"We intend to push the envelope in that
corridor using every mode of transportation we can."
Susan Martinovich, director of the Nevada Department of Transportation
Futuristic, high-speed trains will be needed to assure that the ultra-modern Ivanpah Valley Airport is successful
for the Clark County Department of Aviation, and enjoyable for the patrons who will begin using Ivanpah in 2018.
This page was posted on IvanpahValley.com February 10, 2008.
By
Robert L. Candiotti
In a recent article
in the Las Vegas Review-Journal daily newspaper, there were quotes by Susan Martinovich, director of the Nevada Department
of Transportation, that this writer feels are encouraging.
In the January 24, 2008, story by journalist Benjamin
Spillman, about transportation infrastructure considerations for the proposed Ivanpah Valley Airport, Martinovich said all
transportation possibilities are being considered for the corridor that will lie between Las Vegas and Ivanpah Valley Airport
to be built about 30 miles to the south of Neon City, between the Southern Nevada towns of Jean and Primm.
Spillman
quotes Martinovich as saying, "We intend to push the envelope in that corridor using every mode of transportation we
can."
At the same early 2008 gathering of Nevada transportation authorities, Rosemary Vassiliadis, deputy
director of the Clark County Department of Aviation, said new roads and rights of way will be developed for the supplemental
international airport that will - if the Environmental Impact Statement is approved at the conclusion of 2010 - open around
the year 2018.
Of course, this is good, but this writer is convinced real success for Ivanpah Valley
Airport will be directly connected to creativity and visionary bravery that will lead to dramatically different and futuristic
"people mover" systems that will get people around quickly and easily.
How many individuals who are just
now learning about Ivanpah realize Southern Californians will be willing to take ground transportation into
Southern Nevada to use Ivanpah Valley Airport to fly internationally, as well as across the U.S.?
This writer works in Primm, at the Nevada/California border on I-15. In conversations with California visitors, people who
live in Hesperia and Victorville generally say they would use the new airport in Ivanpah Valley, as opposed to traveling
into Los Angeles to depart out of Los Angeles International Airport. Those questioned who reside in eastern San
Bernardino County almost universally think it would be more appealing to head north to Ivanpah Valley than to go
south to LAX.
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FAST TRAINS AND QUICK
MINDS ARE GOING TO BE NEEDED.
If there was a California-Nevada Interstate Maglev that ran through
Victorville and Barstow to Ivanpah Valley, people by the thousands would be pleased to use it.
Ivanpah Valley Airport
will not open until 2018. And then it will need to operate successfully for most of the rest of the 21st Century. The people
mover systems connected to Ivanpah will need to run quickly and efficiently, designed with the long-term future in
mind.
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A California-Nevada Interstate Maglev (that operates
between Southern California and Southern Nevada) and a California High-Speed Maglev system (that runs north-south in California,
connecting at a few points to the California-Nevada Maglev train) would be a fast train solution to getting
tomorrow's travelers out of their cars and into efficient and pleasant people movers.
A maglev (magnetic levitation)
system that runs in California between San Francisco and San Diego, and another maglev route that operates between Southern
California and Ivanpah Valley Airport in Southern Nevada, makes a lot of sense to this writer. Will these systems be extremely
expensive? Probably yes. Can we afford not to create them? Probably not.
New transportation systems
need to be developed that are altogether separate from automobiles and buses.
| Development of maglev trains essential in NV/CA. |
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Of course, if Ivanpah Valley Airport (as IvanpahValley.com
believes it should be) is built, travelers are going to need to move easily between Ivanpah Valley Airport and Las Vegas'
McCarran International Airport, too. This is within the corridor that Susan Martinovich of the Nevada Department of Transportation
is referring to in the January 24, 2008, Las Vegas Review-Journal article.
For the 30 or so miles between
Ivanpah and McCarran airports, this writer is attracted to a MagneMotion-type maglev system that would be on a smaller scale
than a full-blown maglev system.
The MagneMotion company promotes itself as a fast train
system that costs less, and has more benign environmental impact, than the larger and more expensive long-haul, full-size
maglev trains.
MagneMotion trains would glide along at about 100 mph, which is more appropriate for the corridor
between Ivanpah Valley and McCarran than the 300-400 mph larger maglev systems.
| The Vegas Monorail should be extended to McCarran. |
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In addition, IvanpahValley.com thinks the Las Vegas Monorail should be
extended from MGM all the way to McCarran, as well as the other direction - north into Downtown. The extensions will make
the monorail all the more appealing, relevant and profitable, it seems.
Absolutely, for sure, cars and buses will
be going to and from Ivanpah, moving north,south, east and west. Road enhancement, as is being planned by the Clark County
Department of Aviation, is necessary. And though more and better roads around Ivanpah are needed, new transportation technologies
need to be studied, approved and ultimately built.
This
is why the title of this page of IvanpahValley.com is "Planes, Cars, Buses and Trains."
All of these are needed for integrated systems of transportation that will enable Ivanpah Valley Airport to be successful
and long enduring.
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