Bay Area (Map, News) - Dozens of international investors are poised to float a proposed high-speed rail system that would take San Francisco and Peninsula residents to Southern California in 2½ hours, officials said Wednesday.

More than 60 international investors were interested in helping bankroll the $42 billion train system, said Rod Diridon, a member on the California High Speed Rail Authority Board. About $10 billion in private investments is needed for the train system to be built, officials said.

“We don’t have a project unless we have a private component,” Diridon said. “These private investors are ready to go.”

The authority’s financial firm, New York-based Lehman Brothers, met with about 80 investors representing 50 different firms from around the world last Thursday. The investors included train operators, construction firms and financiers. Before Thursday’s meeting, the level of serious interest from private investors was relatively unknown, rail authority Executive Director Mehdi Morshed said.

“The level of interest from private finance people from all over the world was amazingly good,” Morshed said.

Rail proponent and state Assemblymember Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, said the reaction from private investors was very encouraging.

“It kind of signals to the world and California that it’s finally happening and that this is a reality,” Ma said.

The project is slated to be completed by 2020. The network would link all of the state’s major population centers, including Sacramento, the Bay Area, the Central Valley, Los Angeles, Southern California’s Inland Empire, Orange County and San Diego.

Electric-powered trains on the 700-mile rail system would travel up to 220 mph and the trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles would take 2½ hours and cost $55 for a one-way trip.

Voters are being asked in November to support the state in taking out a $9.95 billion bond to fund the first phase of the project. Strong private financing increases the likelihood of voters approving a $9.95 billion bond for the November ballot, Morshed and Diridon said.

A recent poll indicated 58 percent of Californians would support the bond, which could then be used as leverage for another $9 billion in federal funds, Diridon said.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declined to formally endorse the bond, citing a lack of guarantee in private financing. He could veto the bill for a bond if passed by the Legislature.

mrosenberg@examiner.com

By the numbers

Length of system: 700 miles

Opening: Around 2020

Cost to build: $42 billion

Top speed: 220 mph

Projected annual passengers: 100 million by 2030

Projected annual revenue: $2.6 billion to $3.9 billion by 2030

Projected jobs generated by rail: 450,000 by 2035

Projected CO2 emissions: Reduced by 12.4 billion pounds per year

Projected oil consumption: Reduced by 1.1 billion gallons per year

Source: California High Speed Rail Authority

Comments from Examiner Readers

4:40 PM MST on Fri., Apr. 4, 2008 re: "Rail system speeds closer to a reality"

Andre Peretti said:
Tom West is right. Long-haul airlines support HSR. It allows them to reach destinations for which they have no slots. All American airlines code-share with the French TGV. Why shouldn't they do in the U.S. what they have been doing in Europe for years? The ones that will suffer are the local airlines. They will have to be cheaper than the train but fuel prices will make it very difficult. Their flights mostly consist in taking off, then landing: the two kerosene-guzzling phases.

Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree

1:13 AM MST on Fri., Apr. 4, 2008 re: "Rail system speeds closer to a reality"

Tom West said:
In response to some earlier comments: Airlines will like this, because it will free up slots at airports for more lucrative long distance flights, rather than short-hop shuttle services. Don't believe me? In Texas, the airlines are the ones pushing for high-speed rail. In terms of cost: not building high-speed rail means spending double the amounyt on highway and airport improvments... which won't produce a profit.

1 agree | 0 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree

Report as inappropriate

12:55 PM MST on Thu., Apr. 3, 2008 re: "Rail system speeds closer to a reality"

Seven said:
Build it. Build it yesterday.

2 agree | 1 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree

Report as inappropriate

11:54 AM MST on Thu., Apr. 3, 2008 re: "Rail system speeds closer to a reality"

Examiner Reader said:
Are the airlines just going to roll over for such a project while high speed rail pulls from their customer base? I'm thinking not.

1 agree | 1 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree

Report as inappropriate

9:09 AM MST on Tue., Apr. 1, 2008 re: "High-speed rail bond has strong Bay Area support"

Andre Peretti said:
As November approaches, you can expect special interests to spread tons of misinformation and the public will believe them and vote "NO". The most common argument: after being built high-speed-lines will have to be heavily subsidized. Yet, as the American public will never know, the French HSL made a $12 billion profit last year and paid a $300 million dividend to their majority stockholder, the French state. I remember Jebb Bush's reasons for killing the Florida project: "This is not France. We have good highways and airlines". Nobody remarked that highway and airport density is actually higher in France, and car ownership is the same. What the special interests know is that HSR has decimated short-haul airlines in France and that the remaining ones have to offer $20 flights to compete. Most projects to add lanes to highways and runways to airports have been abandoned. Do you really think this will be allowed to happen in the U.S.?

3 agree | 1 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree

Report as inappropriate

7:37 PM MST on Thu., Dec. 20, 2007 re: "High-speed rail to run through South Bay"

Examiner Reader said:
My guess is we'll be lucky if this project is up and running by 2040 and nobody really has any idea what the final cost will be. if this project does actually come to fruition, i doubt the airlines are going to quietly sit by while their passengers are drawn off by bullet train service between s.f and l.a.

38 agree | 37 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree

Report as inappropriate

11:54 AM MST on Thu., Dec. 20, 2007 re: "High-speed rail to run through South Bay"

SFRes said:
Bob: These trains will not be on existing tracks. They will be next to the existing tracks.

38 agree | 37 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree

Report as inappropriate

11:40 AM MST on Thu., Dec. 20, 2007 re: "High-speed rail to run through South Bay"

Bob said:
Its my understanding that they are going to run these bullet trains on existing tracks; won't work; after the collapse of the wall, East Germany had to replace all of its tracks to accommodate the German Bullet trains; so how can our bullet trains running at 250 mph; operate on old, existing tracks; and i think the costs will evenutally double because all of those public works in California do; look at the Bay Bridge

37 agree | 41 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree

Report as inappropriate

9:03 AM MST on Thu., Dec. 20, 2007 re: "High-speed rail�s path to come through the South Bay"

I can see it now said:
15 years before it will get built, 40 billion in money that should be spent elsewhere, and most likely 100 years behind in technology. And price = costless!

38 agree | 49 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree

Report as inappropriate