For 40 hours a month, I stare at the back of some sedan going about 10 miles an hour. I spend two hours in traffic every day. That’s 10 hours a week.

As a native Southern Californian, dealing with traffic is normal. When I lived in Las Vegas, if I hit all the green lights, I could be pulling into the parking lot at my job in a whopping 8 minutes.

The drive home from Vegas to Orange County on the weekend—going against traffic—took about four hours or so. If the stars align, which they rarely do because unfortunately I do not live inside of a Taylor Swift song, I can hope for a five-hour drive from Orange County to Vegas.

And that’s just time. I have become very aware of how these miles rack up on my odometer every time I ask my car to make this trek. With traffic, gas prices and nothing but miles of desert to look at, Vegas feels too far to drive.

If I were to take a flight from John Wayne Airport or Long Beach Airport, both relatively close to me, it would take me about three and a half hours to reach my destination. This accounts for travel to the airport, getting through TSA (with my “personal item,” as most airlines charge $60+ for a carry-on bag) and to the gate, and time in the sky, plus boarding and deboarding. Planes can also be delayed for various reasons ... and we should also talk about how LA-to-Vegas planes can arrive early, since it is such a short flight, and have to wait for an arrival gate. I am also lucky if I booked ahead of time to get a good price on the flight. Dealing with all these issues makes Vegas simply too close to fly.

So there are quite a few things about the Brightline West bullet train that could attract people like me, who travel between the cities so frequently—possibly money, time and convenience.

Here’s what I need to know before committing to a new way of life: How close is my local Metrolink station? How long is the ride from that station to Rancho Cucamonga? How much will I be paying for both tickets? How much will I be charged for luggage? How much will I be charged to park my car at my local Metrolink station, or how much is that rideshare going to cost? And most importantly, how long will this total journey take me?

My hope is that the train tickets are reasonable. Brightline says pricing will be determined closer to the start of operations, “but can be expected to be priced on par with the cost of gas and parking.” I hope I save time by not having to deal with long TSA lines or plane schedules, and that my train ticket is easily paired with a Metrolink ticket to get to the station. Brightline is touting “seamless service to Downtown Los Angeles” via Metrolink’s system.

Overall, my hope is I will never have to drive or fly to Vegas again.

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