--- title: America's Planned Bullet Train Would Be the World's Cheapest description: Fares on California's much-hyped high-speed rail system are projected to cost less—sometimes far less—than ticket prices on existing bullet trains around the globe. authors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Lifestyle - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2015-05-11T17:08:14.000Z' modified: '2015-05-11T17:08:14.000Z' section: Lifestyle tags: - Transportation - Travel word_count: 478 canonical: https://money.com/california-high-speed-rail-cheap-tickets/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![South Bay, California High-Speed Rail](https://img.money.com/2015/05/150511_em_californiabullettrain.jpg) *South Bay, California High-Speed Rail* The estimated costs involved in [California's planned bullet train](http://swampland.time.com/2012/07/10/big-news-obamas-california-bullet-train-is-still-on-track/) have changed over the years. The 800-mile rail system, capable of handling 220-mph trains and whisking passengers between Los Angeles and San Francisco in three hours, was originally projected to run around [$45 billion](http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1906025,00.html). That figure has since ballooned to somewhere between [$68 billion and $98 billion](http://reason.com/archives/2012/07/02/5-reasons-the-california-high-speed-rail). It's expected to take another [15 years or so](http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/nov/02/high-speed-rail-bullet-train-san-diego/) before the SF-LA section starts accepting passengers, and [right-wing critics](http://www.breitbart.com/california/2014/11/10/cal-high-speed-train-on-track-to-open-in-80-years/) point out that based on the extremely sluggish progress of the project thus far, it could take 80 years before it operates as planned. A new [*Los Angeles Times* investigation](http://www.latimes.com/local/politics/la-me-adv-bullet-fares-20150510-story.html#navtype=outfit&page=1) shows that the projected prices of passenger tickets have changed over the years as well. Proposals originally called for a one-way trip on the train from San Francisco to Los Angeles to run "about $50 a person." The average expected price of passage has since climbed as high as $105; the latest estimate is $86. At such a price, California would offer one of the world's cheapest high-speed train tickets on a per-mile basis, if not the absolute cheapest. The projected $86 fare, based on 2013 dollars, would break down to a passenger cost of about 20¢ per mile. That's dirt cheap compared with many high-speed train systems in Europe: Tickets on the Paris-Lyon line in France cost an average of 52¢ per mile, while Germany's Hannover-Wurzburg's average is 46¢ per mile. California's per-mile price would even be cheaper than bullet trains between Shanghai and Beijing in China, where the average is 22¢ per mile, even though it's assumed the government heavily subsidizes the operation to keep passenger prices down. Proponents of keeping passenger fares low in California argue that it's a necessary step to win over travelers who might otherwise fly or drive. Cheap high-speed rail tickets—or at least projections calling for them—obviously help sell government officials and the public on the idea that travelers will flock to the trains, making the project seem doable and worthwhile in the first place. Yet critics say this kind of pricing would mean the system has no prayer of breaking even, meaning it would require subsidies—possibly huge ones—year after year after year. James Fallows of [*The Atlantic*](http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/07/california-high-speed-railmdashthe-critics-speak/374306/), a high-speed rail supporter, summed up a few of the other main critiques of California's project this way: "It will cost too much, take too long, use up too much land, go to the wrong places, and in the end won't be fast or convenient enough to do that much good anyway." Overall, though, if the estimated average fares of California's high-speed rail prove accurate—that's a huge if—tickets will be a true bargain. Well, they'll certainly be a bargain for passengers anyway. It could be a different matter to taxpayers, the state of California as a whole, and whatever other resources might be used to subsidize the operation. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/california-high-speed-rail-cheap-tickets/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Lifestyle", "item": "https://money.com/lifestyle/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Travel", "item": "https://money.com/travel/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "America's Planned Bullet Train Would Be the World's Cheapest" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/california-high-speed-rail-cheap-tickets/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/california-high-speed-rail-cheap-tickets/", "name": "America's Planned Bullet Train Would Be the World's Cheapest", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2015-05-11T17:08:14.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/california-high-speed-rail-cheap-tickets/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/california-high-speed-rail-cheap-tickets/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2015-05-11T17:08:14.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "America's Planned Bullet Train Would Be the World's Cheapest", "articleSection": "Lifestyle", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2015/05/150511_em_californiabullettrain.jpg", "width": 2100, "height": 1181, "caption": "150511_EM_CaliforniaBulletTrain" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brad Tuttle", "url": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/#author", "description": "Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals.\r\n\r\n", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/01/Brad-Tuttle.png?w=226&h=247&crop=1", "alumniOf": "Columbia University School of Journalism, MS", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle", "https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2015-05-11T17:08:14.000Z", "description": "Fares on California's much-hyped high-speed rail system are projected to cost less—sometimes far less—than ticket prices on existing bullet trains around the globe.", "abstract": "Fares on California's much-hyped high-speed rail system are projected to cost less—sometimes far less—than ticket prices on existing bullet trains around the globe.", "@id": "https://money.com/california-high-speed-rail-cheap-tickets/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2015-05-11T17:08:14.000Z", "wordCount": 478, "keywords": [ "Transportation", "Travel" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Lifestyle", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifestyle" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Travel", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travel" ] } ] } ] } ```