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SELMA, Calif. — When Teresa Bynum first heard that high-speed rail was being built in California, her family vehemently denounced the plan and firmly opposed it.
Bynum, 30, of Riverdale, said his father continued to oppose the plan to seize farmland and force out agricultural companies. For years, high-speed rail has been derided as the “poor train” and the “train to nowhere,” as its future hangs in the balance after decades of delays and soaring costs.
But after losing her husband of 10 years, Bynum struggled to find seasonal work to pay her bills. She wanted stability. The Central Valley Training Center offered a 12-week pre-apprenticeship program funded by the High-Speed Rail Authority, providing a path to a trade that would allow them to work on the railroad for a day.
“The moment I said I wanted to do high-speed rail, they lost their opinion,” she recalled. “And I was like, the job is there. It’s happening. Like it or not, I might as well take advantage of it.”
Bynum, the only woman in her class, graduated from the 12-week program with six certificates earlier this year and got a job at a manufactured housing company after attending a job fair hosted by the center.
Although she no longer works for the railroad, Bynum said the training she received at the Central Valley Training Center paved the way to radically change her life. Her income tripled and she was able to move out of her parents’ home. Buying a car with 3 kids.
Despite heightened uncertainty about the project’s future due to the financial crisis and the Trump administration, the state and federal governments have invested more than $11 billion in the project, generated $18 billion in economic output, and It’s being used against the Central Valley. said a state official.
While it may be seen as a fiasco elsewhere, high-speed rail represents economic promise for the Central Valley, and if the first part of the project, a 171-mile stretch, is serviced by rail. This will be the first region. Merced to Bakersfield — completed and operational. A huge viaduct has been built and can be seen going up and down I-99. The project created 14,000 construction jobs, more than 70 percent of the Central Valley workforce.
Mr. Bynum is one of 223 students to graduate from the program. The program is heavily funded by the High Speed Rail Administration and aims to bring high-skilled jobs to people who previously had few options other than low-wage agricultural jobs.
The Merced-to-Bakersfield section could open as early as 2030, and local residents and officials say they’re eager to capitalize on the economic boost. The San Joaquin Valley has long suffered from chronic poverty, despite vast tracts of farmland producing crops that bring in billions of dollars a year. Local officials see the railroad as an opportunity to connect residents to California’s metropolitan economy.
The training center is located in Selma, a farming community of about 24,000 people about 24 miles south of Fresno. The town, known as the “raisin capital of the world,” hopes to revitalize its workforce by building high-speed rail.
“There’s still a lot of skepticism across the state, but I think it’s emerging as a reality for the people who work here,” said Alicia Aguirre, Selma’s economic development manager. Of the 223 graduates, 42 are from Selma, and there is a waiting list of people who have expressed interest in taking the course.
Aguirre said the scale of investment the railroad will bring to the Central Valley is “truly unprecedented.”
“Central California has an unprecedented comparative advantage just because construction is happening in the Central Valley before construction is happening in Southern California or in the Bay,” she said.
In fact, most students who take the program don’t end up in those jobs, but more than 70% continue to work in the field based on the training they received, agency officials said. .
The training center, which opened in 2020, was established in partnership with the authorities. City of Selma. Fresno, Madera, Tulare and Kingsville Trade Council. Fresno Economic Development Corporation. Fresno Economic Opportunity Commission. The center will serve disadvantaged populations, including veterans, at-risk youth, people of color, and low-income residents of these and surrounding counties. Selma recently renegotiated his contract for two more years this year. Officials spent a total of $4.2 million in funding for the training center.
In the warehouse, students first learn basics such as safety practices, tool and material identification, forklift operation, and construction mathematics, then learn soft skills such as active listening, working in teams, and work ethics. He then worked in a variety of trades, including bricklaying, carpentry, masonry, ironwork, and sheet metal work.
Giovanni Jimenez said he never imagined he could learn a trade like electrical work without going into debt or going to college. After being laid off as a forklift mechanic in Kerman, Jimenez learned about the training center and saw it as an opportunity to learn a career that would provide security and retirement planning.
“I was kind of tired of just finding a job and making minimum wage,” Jimenez said. He said he likes that his classes are practical and that the instructors are quick to correct him if he’s doing something wrong. “My brothers come and ask me, and they say, ‘Are you going to build that high-speed rail?’ And I thought, oh, I wish we could.”
High-speed rail is the draw of this training center, which has four classes of approximately 25 students each year. Chuck Riojas, Executive Director of the Trade Council, has led the training center since 2020. All classes take a tour of the high-speed rail construction site and get a close-up look at the viaducts and bridges being built every day.
Many students find employment in manufacturing and solar power companies. After graduation, students are assigned a case manager who stays in touch with them for a year after graduation to help them find employment.
“More importantly, it’s a high-speed rail job,” Riojas said, a high-paying job.
Bynum passes the Conejo, Hanford and Madera viaducts on his way to work.
“I still want to do it,” she said. “That was the goal, and always has been.”
But she said she is grateful to have taken the program.
“Six months after completing the program, my life changed forever,” Bynum said. “We did this program because we needed to make lives better.”
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