The proposed $12 billion magnetic levitation train connecting Las Vegas to Anaheim, Calf., conjures images of engineers, administrators and environmental experts huddled over room-sized maps and computer modeling.

In fact, headquarters for the California-Nevada Super Speed Train Commission (pdf) is in Richann Bender's suburban tract home, a couple of miles from U.S. 95 on the west side of town.

 "There's always the criticism of something going into Vegas," says Neil Cummings, project manager for the American Magline Group in Los Angeles. "Gambling express, you know?"

Indeed, the Las Vegas maglev train came in for ridicule last month after Congress and Obama included $8 billion for high-speed rail projects in the stimulus legislation. Republican critics wrongly suggested the money was designated for the Las Vegas maglev proposal. In fact, Las Vegas will again have to compete for funding with other proposed high-speed projects .

Still, Bender pushes on. She expects to get a salary from the commission someday, but that's contingent on the project moving forward. She believes that will happen and finds the current circumstances the most promising in years. In her view, a maglev train is true to the spirit of Obama's stimulus bill: It would create construction jobs in the short term and modernize the United States' crumbling and obsolete infrastructure.

"And it would bring a whole new industry to the U.S.," Bender says of the proposed 300-mile-per-hour maglev, which could allow travel from Las Vegas to Anaheim in 86 minutes -- including stations along the way.

Critics question why a train would connect Las Vegas to Anaheim, rather than denser Los Angeles. But commission leaders say Anaheim is more committed -- the city's mayor is a commission member -- and arguably needs it more: John Wayne Airport in nearby Santa Ana is maxed out, while Ontario Airport 45 miles northeast can absorb more traffic. The maglev would stop in Ontario on the way to Las Vegas from Anaheim, giving coastal residents quicker access to the less-crowded airport.

Aguilera estimates it would take just under 15 minutes to reach Ontario from Anaheim by maglev.

The next stop would be Victorville, possibly near the small city's airport. The train would then continue along I-15 to Barstow, Primm and the proposed Ivanpah Airport.

The next stop would be near McCarran International Airport, possibly by Mandalay Bay, and the train would continue to its terminus in downtown Las Vegas.