The Case of the Outsourced IT Survey or, The Ugly American answers the phone 1088

There are several Navy bases in the Mojave desert. They are ideal for weapons development (China Lake, CA) or strike fighter training (Fallon, NV). China Lake is where the Sidewinder missle was developed. Fallon is where Navy pilots practice diveplanting. I saw it once, very impressive. The practice range isn't far from the highway. F-18s fly vertically more then horizontally. The terrain in central Nevada is very similar to places like Afghanistan or the Arabian peninsula, ideal training ground. The Army supply depot (Hawthorne, NV) dates from WW II and is a valley full of ammo bunkers, as far as one can see.

As for high speed service between Vegas and Reno, until the federal speed limit appeared the highway was the high speed line...no speed limit, daytime speeds of 150kph were not uncommon and relatively safe given the wide open spaces and infrequent traffic. Night time too, but the risk of colliding with range cattle (usually bane for all concerned, driver and livestock) is much higher. On that same highway I once saw the result of a Porche colliding with a large jackrabbit at speeds over 150kph, demolished the front body. A train would be no faster (or safer) than driving and far less convenient-reliable given the reputation of american pbuttenger railroads. In any case the air fare is cheaper, so there's no incentive to even build a pbuttenger line.

The only way a train would work is if it had a lounge car with a player club, good buffet and plenty of loose slot machines (local cliche). Now if the train adopted local county laws while pbutting through, it could also offer some very unique "private entertainment" cars.... Jack Peachicken