Arlington wrote: ↑Tue Aug 20, 2019 6:10 am
Ron, stop treating this like a DC, NY, Chicago or Boston business trip where there is a downtown courthouse or financial district (on the LA end) that is important for the trip, or where the airlines have a conveniently located airport.
The LA origin is at home, and homes are spread uniformly across the sprawl.
It is not about access to downtown on the LA metro end
it is also not about the population of Victorville anymore than it is about the population of Long Beach or Burbank or the Port of Los Angeles. Angelenos are going to drive for the first leg of any trip from "home" to Las Vegas, and the population of any specific municipality is irrelevant.
I agree and disagree with you. Getting the train to downtown LA is important for several reasons.
(1) It is the center of a huge metro area, (2) All road lead there, (3) All Amtrak trains go there, (4) Most Metrolink trains go there, and (5) All Metro light and heavy rail trains go there. Short of flying, just about every mode of transit with just about very line goes there.
Let us prepose you live in Santa Barbara, west of downtown LA, live in San Diego south of LA, or live in Sacramento north of LA, if you are riding rail transit as far as possible to get to Las Vegas, what is the common point all of them will travel through? The only answer is Union Station in downtown LA. That's why it is the ideal place for a train station - not because of the immediate population nearby.
The only way to get to Victorville safely is on rubber wheels - by automobile, bus, bike, or small plane.