Despite years of controversy and wondering where the money to fund its construction would come from, ground was officially broken Tuesday on Californiaâs first high-speed rail line in Fresno.
Expected to be completed by 2029, trains on the $68 billion railroad will travel at speeds up to 200 miles per hour, spanning 520 miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles in under three hours.
According to a report from the L.A. Times, Gov. Jerry Brown declared Fresno the ânationâs high-speed rail capital and the âcentral cogâ of a new transportation system.â Brown emphasized the importance of the trainâs ability to more quickly connect the southern and northern halves of the giant state.
With more than a dozen construction workers gathered around the podium at the groundbreaking, Robbie Hunter, Californiaâs director of the building trades union council, said the project would create 66,000 construction jobs over the next 16 years. Hunter said the line is the âgreatest infrastructure project, not only in the history of California, but the nation,â the Times reports.
The project needed a lot of help since its inception six years ago in reaching the groundbreaking, including voter approval of a $9 billion bond measure in 2008, the Obama administrationâs addition of $3.2 billion in grants and the California legislatureâs decision to provide the project with 25 percent of the stateâs future greenhouse gas feesâup to $1 billion a year.
However, there is still much opposition to the project, especially among those who remain unconvinced the state can come up with all of the necessary funding over the next two decades.
Plus, many believe the project will far exceed its $68 billion budget, the Times reports. Should that happen, securing extra funding could be especially difficult when considering that the project likely wonât receive any more federal funding now that Congressional Republicansâwho have âvowedâ not to provide more fundingâcontrol both the House and the Senate.