X Train derailed; Wynn trumps Trump

It may already be time to stick a fork in the so-called X Train, which would use existing rail lines to carry gamblers from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. According to The Associated Press, X Train is being sued by an adversary that says it had the idea first, even if it’s farther down the alphabet. Would-be rival Z-Train proposes “to target upscale passengers by providing gourmet meals, art exhibits, book signings, fashion shows, among other things. Tickets would cost about the same as airline tickets,” writes the AP’s Daisy Nguyen.

Z-Train flack Bruce Richardson doesn’t appear to have gotten the message that there’s a recession on, sneering at X Train’s target market as “a customer looking for a coach seat and a beer.” Hey, that’s a pretty good chunk of the Vegas market, too, bub (to say nothing of the customer base that it needs to shore up).

X Train’s problems don’t end at intellectual-property issues. Union Pacific denies that it has given anyone priority access to its track lines (undermining both companies’ promise of a 5.5-hour ride) or even held serious discussions to that effect. The railroad also vetoed on-train gambling, central to X Train’s sales pitch. Already, the latter’s pledge of 90 minutes’ gambling time from the Nevada border to arrival in Las Vegas was looking pretty sketchy — unless the train slowed to a crawl somewhere out in the desert. Now that issue is entirely moot. If the X Train was counting on gambling lucre to make it pencil out, I’d say the project is as good as dead.

Two-bagger for Wynn. Although much ink was spilled last week when Wynn Las Vegas had to bump a pair of customers to Trump International, I doubt Wynn execs are crying into their beer. For one thing, it’s not a bad thing for either the resort’s image or its stock price to have it get around that the place is crowded to the brim and then some.

For another, by sending the discomfited guests to Trump International for a night, it subtly plants the image of Trump as a hotel that’s reduced to taking Steve Wynn‘s overflow. Wynn and Donald Trump claim to have buried the hatchet but they still manage to get their licks in. Score this round for Wynn.

Speaking of feuds, the brother-in-law to Frank & Lorenzo Fertitta, Golden Gaming CEO Blake Sartini has lured PR man Justin McVay away from the Golden Nugget. The latter is owned by cousin Tilman Fertitta, who’s reputed to run the joint with an iron fist, and it’s an open secret that no love is lost between the Vegas and Galveston branches of the Fertitta family. Vegas 1, Galveston 0.

Easy come, easy go. The leveraging of Columbia Sussex by CEO William J. Yung III continues to haunt the company. In order to pay off a note that’s due in July, ColSux is selling 14 hotels for an aggregate $518 million — or $37 million per hotel. Unfortunately, the Westin Casuarina off the Strip is not slated to be one of the castoffs.