Las Vegas' Amtrak link came through town three times a week, stopping at a station at downtown's Plaza hotel-casino. It offered rail service to Los Angeles and to Salt Lake City where passengers potentially could board other trains to other West Coast destinations or east to Denver and Chicago.

The rap against the Desert Wind was that it operated more like a slight breeze with trips to Southern California taking just about as long as it takes to drive.

Since the Desert Wind disappeared, other proposals have surfaced to bring train service back to Las Vegas.

The most recent plan, put forth by DesertXpress Enterprises Inc. last month, may have the most realistic chance at success.

The $3 billion proposal is offering something earlier plans didn't have — its own dedicated track. That alone should give the DesertXpress a better chance to make it than an Amtrak proposal that sputtered in the early 2000s.

Amtrak had an interesting idea, but like many of its proposals over the years, it cut some corners on costs that eventually led to its downfall.

Amtrak has a great operation in the Pacific Northwest using train sets manufactured by Renfe Talgo, a Spanish company with an office in Seattle. Amtrak's plan was to put Talgo trains on existing rails that were going to get a $28 million makeover.

The problem with using the existing track is it's already used to haul freight for Union Pacific. Slow freight trains and speedy passenger trains like Talgo don't mix, so rail experts determined that a lot of headaches could be alleviated by building a parallel track in areas where a steep grade exists.

Much of the steep grade exists in the Mohave National Preserve, a massive area administered by the National Park Service.

Even though the Sept. 11 attacks got people rethinking train travel as a viable option, particularly between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, the Amtrak proposal with Talgo lost steam and was never a priority.

Amtrak's failure renewed interest in new train technology and maglev looked to become a part of the desert's future. The California-Nevada Super Speed Train Commission boosted its proposal to build a magnetic levitation train system connecting Anaheim with Las Vegas and even got financial help from Congress in the form of a $45 million allocation over four years.

But that doesn't come close to paying the $1.3 billion price tag of just 40 miles of maglev track between Las Vegas and Primm.

Cost and maintenance could keep maglev from ever rising out of the desert, and DesertXpress has a key advantage in its proposal — no dependence on government funding. Thomas Stone, the president of DesertXpress, said he has no plans to approach the government for anything except right-of-way in the Interstate 15 median or right next to it to build his tracks.

The plan to build the railroad without government funds is one of five reasons why DesertXpress could get built. Here are some of the others, according to Stone:

• The technology the company plans to use already is in commercial use. As sexy as a 300 mph maglev sounds, it is dependent on systems that have never been built in the United States. China has an operating maglev train, and Japan and Germany have test programs using the technology. DesertXpress plans to use Bombardier train sets that already carry passengers on European routes.

• Tracks would be built on exclusive grades. In other words, no worries about freight trains or other traffic slowing these high-speed trains. Parallel tracks would run the entire 200-mile length of the project and there would be no grade crossings, a safety feature that will keep cars and trucks out of the way of trains.

• Existing right-of-way would be used. That should minimize battles in developing an acceptable environmental impact statement. DesertXpress' proposal has several route options. For example, when the route crosses into Nevada, there are options for the track to follow the I-15 corridor all the way to Las Vegas or to more closely follow the Union Pacific right-of-way. A segment just south of the California-Nevada border at Mountain Pass includes a portion of track that swings to the east to ease the steep grade. That's the only part of the route that ventures into the Mohave National Preserve, a feature that pleases National Park Service administrators.

• There's no construction south of Victorville, Calif., which means there's no construction over Cajon Pass. Because the drop to the low-desert floor is so steep, Cajon Pass would be one of the most expensive pieces of real estate to cross. Critics of the DesertXpress proposal, however, say that ending the line at Victorville is a mistake and that Southern California residents wouldn't drive all the way to Victorville to get on a train. Stone says his research suggests otherwise. Besides, the company eventually hopes to go farther south and west to get closer to Los Angeles' suburbs.

Opinions on the DesertXpress high-speed train proposal are open through Aug. 15. Comments can be mailed to CirclePoint, Attention: Mary Bean, 455 Capitol Mall, Suite 305, Sacramento, CA 95814.