California breaks ground for high-speed train

FRESNO, Calif. – California broke ground Tuesday on its $68 billion high-speed rail system, promising to combat global warming while whisking travelers between Los Angeles and San Francisco in less than three hours.

The bullet train project, the first in the nation to get underway, faces challenges from Republican cost-cutters in Congress and Central Valley farmers suing to keep the rails off their fields. Others doubt the state can deliver the sleek system as designed and worry it will become an expensive failure.

But Gov. Jerry Brown said high-speed rail is essential to meeting his latest goal: encouraging the nation’s most populous state to get half its power from renewable energy by 2030.

“It’s not that expensive. We can afford it. In fact, we cannot NOT afford it,” Brown said before signing a symbolic section of rail. One of the biggest public works endeavors in the country, California’s high-speed rail is a signature project for Brown’s political legacy, and supporters say it promises to boost the state’s economy with thousands of jobs, including many in the Central Valley, which has been hard-hit by recession and drought.

Zooming through the Central Valley at 200 mph, the trains could unite northern and southern California like never before.

The high-speed train tickets will be similar to the cost of air travel, promoters said, and deliver people to downtown stations, saving more time and money. Fares are projected to run from $81 to $89 one way between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

By comparison, riding Amtrak between east San Francisco Bay and Los Angeles now takes 11 to 19 hours, and costs $59 to $138 each way. That rivals the expense of an airline flight, which takes about an hour and 15 minutes.

By car, the journey takes at least 6 1/2 hours in the best traffic, and the price varies widely depending on the type of car, gasoline prices and highway tolls.

Gina McCarthy, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said the all-electric trains, running on renewable energy, will take cars off highways and provide an effective alternative to flying on jet fuel, which pumps far more greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.

Californians approved a nearly $10 billion bond for the train in 2008, and in 2012 the Obama administration dedicated $3.3 billion in stimulus money. Part of the greenhouse gas fees to be collected under the state’s cap-and-trade program also will go to the train.