CHSRA Video Release: High-Speed Rail ‘Empowers’ Students to Pursue Future Rail Careers

Written by Carolina Worrell, Senior Editor
Screen Grab Courtesy of CHSRA, via YouTube.

Screen Grab Courtesy of CHSRA, via YouTube.

The California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) on May 25 released a video celebrating Fresno State’s first annual K-12 Railroad Model Competition.

The video (below) highlights enthusiastic elementary, middle and high-school students from the Central Valley as they designed railroad track models, created operation plans and delivered presentations on their work as it relates to California’s rich rail history for a competition spanning two semesters.

Through the student outreach effort, I Will Ride, CHSRA served as a sponsor of the Fresno State Transportation Institute (FSTI) competition. Four Authority senior level engineers volunteered as judges, providing expertise and insights on the students’ work, which included planning, constructing and operating a rail system.

CHSRA’s partnership with FSTI for the student competition is part of a larger effort through the Authority’s award winning I Will Ride student outreach and education program dedicated to “connecting students to information and career opportunities on the nation’s first high-speed rail system currently under construction.”

To date, California’s High-Speed Rail project has created more than 10,000 construction jobs, according to CHSRA. That number, the Authority adds, will only grow as the project progresses, and some of these promising young minds may in fact join that number. CHSRA has begun work to extend the 119 miles under construction to 171 miles of future electrified high-speed rail from Merced to Bakersfield. There are more than 30 active construction sites in California’s Central Valley, with CHSRA having environmentally cleared 422 miles of the high-speed rail program from the Bay Area to the Los Angeles Basin.

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