How the high-speed rail trains workers and provides thousands of jobs

An electrician instructs a class of students in Selma, California.

Dec. 24, 2024 3 AM PT

SELMA, Calif. — When Teresa Bynum first heard the high-speed rail was coming to California, her family blasted the project and was staunchly against it.

Bynum, 30 of Riverdale, said her father remained opposed to the project as it took over farmland and pushed out agricultural companies. Over the years as the future of a high-speed rail wavered with decades-long delays and soaring costs, it was lampooned as a “boondoggle,” and the “train to nowhere.”

But after losing her husband of 10 years, Bynum struggled to find seasonal jobs to pay her bills. She wanted stability, and the Central Valley Training Center, which offered a 12-week pre-apprenticeship program funded by the High-Speed Rail Authority, offered a pathway to a trade that could lead to one day working on the rail.

“The minute I said I want to do high-speed rail, I mean, they lost their s—,” she recalled. “And it was like, the jobs are there. It’s happening. Whether you like it or not, you might as well capitalize on it.”

Bynum graduated from the 12-week program — the only woman in her class — earlier this year with six certificates and landed a job with a prefabricated housing company after attending a job fair hosted by the center.

Although she doesn’t work for the rail today, Bynum said the training she received at the Central Valley Training Center paved the way for her to radically alter her life: Her income tripled, and she was able to move out of her parents’ home with her three children and buy a car.

Even as the financial crisis and the Trump administration have added to the uncertainty of the project’s future, the state and federal governments have invested more than $11 billion in the project, and it has generated $18 billion in economic output that has gone toward the Central Valley and state, authority officials have said.

Although it might be seen as a debacle elsewhere, the high-speed rail has become a symbol of economic promise for the Central Valley, which would be the first region served by the rail if the first portion of the project — the 171-mile stretch from Merced to Bakersfield — is completed and becomes operational. Massive viaducts are going up and can be seen driving up and down State Route 99. The project has created 14,000 construction jobs, more than 70% for Central Valley workers.

Bynum is one of 223 students to graduate from the program, which is funded largely by the High-Speed Rail Authority in an effort to bring high-skill jobs to people who have traditionally had few options beyond low-paying agricultural jobs.

The leg connecting Merced and Bakersfield could open as early as 2030, and local residents and officials say they are eager to capitalize on the economic boost. Despite being home to vast agricultural lands that produce crops that bring in billions of dollars annually, the San Joaquin Valley has long suffered from chronic poverty. Local officials see the rail as an opportunity to connect residents to California’s metropolitan economies.

The training center is in Selma, a farming community of about 24,000 people, about 15 miles south of Fresno. It is known as the “raisin capital of the world,” but the town wants to revitalize its workforce with construction of the high-speed rail.

“There’s still a lot of skepticism across the state, but I think it manifests into something real for the people who work here,” said Alicia Aguirre, the economic development manager for Selma. Forty-two of the 223 graduates are from Selma, and there is a waiting list of people who have expressed interest in taking the course.

The scale of investment the rail brings to the Central Valley, Aguirre said, is “just unprecedented.”

“Just the mere point that construction is happening in the Central Valley before it happens in SoCal or the Bay is a comparative advantage that Central California hasn’t seen before,” she said.

Although the reality is that most students who have gone through the program haven’t ended up working those jobs, more than 70% go on to work in a field based on the training they received, authority officials said.

The training center, which opened in 2020, was created in a partnership with the authority; the city of Selma; the Fresno, Madera, Tulare, Kings Building Trades Council; the Fresno Economic Development Corp.; and the Fresno Economic Opportunity Commission. The center targets disadvantaged populations, including veterans, at-risk young adults, people of color and low-income residents in those counties and surrounding ones. Selma recently renegotiated another two-year contract this year. In total, the authority has spent $4.2 million funding the training center.

In a warehouse, students learn the basics first: safety practices, identifying tools and materials, driving forklifts, and construction mathematics, and soft skills, like active listening, working on a team and work ethics. Then they are introduced to an array of different trades including bricklaying, carpentry, masonry, iron work and sheet metal work.

Giovanni Jimenez said he never imagined he could learn a trade like electrical work without taking on debt or going to a college. After being laid off as a forklift mechanic in Kerman, Jimenez learned about the training center and thought it would be a chance to learn a trade that would set him up with a stable job and retirement plan.

“I was kind of tired of going and just getting a job and getting minimum wage,” Jimenez said. He said he liked how hands-on his classes are, and how quickly his instructors are willing to correct him if he’s doing something wrong. “My siblings come and ask me, and they’re like, ‘Are you going to build that high-speed rail?’ And I was like, yeah, hopefully I do.”

The high-speed rail is the draw of the training center, which has four classes each year made up of about 25 students. Chuck Riojas, executive director of the trades council, has led the training center since 2020. Every class gets a tour of the high-speed rail construction sites, where they see up close the viaducts and girders that are being put up every day.

Many students have gone on to work in manufacturing or solar companies. After graduating, the students are assigned case managers who stay in touch with them a year after they graduate to help them land jobs.

“The icing on top of that is a job on high-speed rail,” Riojas said — good paying jobs.

Bynum drives past the Conejo, Hanford and Madera viaducts on her way to work.

“I would still love to be doing that,” she said. “That was the goal, has always been the goal.”

But she said she’s grateful to have gone through the program.

“My life changed a lot six months after completing the program,” Bynum said. “We did the program because we needed better in life.”