The California High-Speed Rail Authority has received 35 responses from private companies interested in financing, building and operating the first 300-miles of the state’s rail project, whose first phase will run from Los Angeles to San Francisco.

The Rail Authority says the private sector firms expressing interest range from investors and financiers to infrastructure developers and international consortia to systems providers and operators.

Among some of bidders are AECOM, Barclays Bank, Bechtel, Beijing National Railway, the Chinese High Speed Rail Delivery Team, Fluor, Indra USA, Japan California High Speed Rail Consortium, Parsons Transportation Group, Siemens and Skanska.

Over the next month, Rail Authority staff will hold one-on-one meetings with respondents to discuss their interest.

The new rail system will run up to 220 miles per hour and will whisk people from Los Angeles to San Francisco in just 2 hours and 40 minutes. But the system will co