The Department of Transportation has decided that the proposed Las Vegas - Southern California maglev train was not far enough along to be eligible for funding, which is meant to go towards more immediate solutions.
Sen. Harry Reid is taking a lot of heat for his failure to secure the federal funds. It also appears that the privately-developed Desert Xpress train from Victorville may have diverted attention away from the slower maglev proposal.
Steve Tertreault writes, "The maglev project involving Las Vegas, which has been in planning since 1988, encountered a setback last summer when Reid, who had been its chief patron in Congress, said he would wait no longer for progress and announced he was switching his support to Desert XPress.
Reid said at the time he would seek to redirect a $45 million earmark that he had placed in a 2005 transportation bill for maglev, on the grounds the project was not prepared to spend the funds."
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