Sandoval appoints 5 to high-speed rail board

Five Southern Nevada residents, including a financial expert, the general manager of the Regional Transportation Commission and an engineering professor, have been named to the new Nevada High-Speed Rail Authority.

Gov. Brian Sandoval announced his appointments Thursday to the board planning connection of Southern Nevada and Southern California with a high-speed rail system.

The board was formed in May when Sandoval signed Senate Bill 457 into law.

The initial appointees are George Smith, executive vice president of Bank of America Merrill Lynch; Tina Quigley, general manager of the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada; Hualiang “Harry” Teng, director of the railroad, high-speed rail and transit initiative and an associate professor of UNLV’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Fred Dilger, principal and transportation analyst at Black Mountain Research in Henderson; and Peter Thomas, managing partner of the Thomas & Mack Co. in Las Vegas.

“Nevada is internationally known as the standard bearer when it comes to travel and tourism and our state is also now recognized as an emerging destination for advanced manufacturing,” Sandoval said in a written statement.

“To maintain our competitive edge, we must demonstrate that we are willing to pursue options which will expand and strengthen our engagement with neighboring states,” he said. “The men and women appointed today represent some of the brightest minds in transportation and business development.”

The authority must select a franchisee on or before Oct. 1. That franchisee is expected to be Las Vegas-based XpressWest, which has been working since 2010 on a system to link Las Vegas with Victorville, Calif. Once XpressWest received a record of decision in November 2011, it began working on environmental approvals on the route and opened discussions with California rail officials to tie its system to that state’s high-speed rail system at Palmdale, 50 miles west of Victorville.

The system remains a private entity, but as a franchisee it should get state help when development roadblocks occur.

The new board replaces the California-Nevada Super Speed Ground Transportation Commission formed in 1997 to develop a magnetic levitation system between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

Board members will have staggered four-year terms, but can be reappointed.

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