On April 15, Fresno City College demonstrated to state officials its ability to train new workers in maintaining a new high-speed rail system planned between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The high-speed rail commission for the state of California will soon be selecting a site for the maintenance facility of the state’s forthcoming high-speed rail system.

The chairman for the high-speed rail commission, Curt Pringle, who is also mayor of Anaheim, joined Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin for a campus visit. They flew in via helicopter, landing at Ratcliffe Stadium.

According to Pringle, the digging will start by 2012.

“The college did not disappoint,” Mayor Swearengin said. “They showcased their applied technology program for the chair of the high-speed rail authority. When he walked away, he said this is very impressive.”

The rail system will run through the San Joaquin Valley and will connect the Bay Area with Southern California. The new rail system will enable the public to travel from Fresno to Disneyland, for example, in about an hour and a half.

FCC President Cynthia Azari greeted the mayors at the stadium, where golf carts then transported them to campus, accompanied by a police escort.

Azari said the high-speed rail project would mean more than 1,500 new jobs for Fresno County. The campus, Azari said, already has all of the necessary equipment for the transfer facility. If FCC is chosen, it would simply add a new program to its catalog of courses, she said.

Mark McCollough, an FCC computer aided manufacturing instructor, started the presentation to the officials. Those observing the presentation included Swearengin, Pringle, Dr. Azari, and Fresno County Supervisor Susan Anderson.

McCollough demonstrated the college’s technology and ability to use its advanced machinery. McCollough chose some of his top students to present their projects. One former student demonstrated the things that he learned from the program and how it is used in his job working for the multi-national company Cisco.

Mayor Swearengin said that campus officials communicated that FCC has the capacity to train and equip the project if it ends up in Fresno.

“I’ve spent a lot of time on community college campuses and have never seen all these kinds of things,” Swearengin said.