Plan for High-Speed Train Told : Transportation: U.S. commits $1.2 million toward the project. Funds will be used to improve 85 crossings between San Diego and L.A.

The U.S. secretary of transportation announced Monday that $1.2 million will go to develop a high-speed passenger train that one day could travel from San Diego to Sacramento--an ambitious project expected to cost at least $7 billion.

The money will be used next year to improve the safety of 85 railroad crossings--eliminating some, fencing off others--from San Diego to Los Angeles, officials said. Last week in San Diego, three people were killed in crossing accidents.

One state transportation official said constructing an overpass or underpass can cost $15 million.

Transportation Secretary Andrew H. Card Jr. said the money was not as meaningful as the commitment it symbolized.

“It isn’t significant in the dollar amount but it is the first step toward high-speed rail,” Card said in an interview.

But several transportation officials in the state expressed skepticism about the federal government’s commitment to the project. One California official said of the announcement’s timing: “It happens to be a few days before the election.”

The 655-mile route planned in California is to run from San Diego to Sacramento, slicing through the San Joaquin Valley, Card said during a news conference at the Santa Fe Depot. By reducing the number of crossings and upgrading the track, officials say, the trains could travel 120 m.p.h., almost 40 m.p.h. faster than now.

Today, 182 railroad crossings dot the tracks between San Diego and Los Angeles. Of those, 85 have automatic warning signals that pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists sometimes ignore.

“If we could eliminate those crossings we could have high-speed railways in this decade if we wanted,” said Gilbert E. Carmichael, administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration. “We wouldn’t dare build a street across an airport runway.”

One high-speed train corridor, he said, could tote the same amount of passengers and freight that travel on eight lanes of highway.

By 2002, transportation officials expect 5.1 million passengers to annually ride the rails between San Diego and Los Angeles on 14 daily round trips.

But state officials are eyeing the northern portion of the planned corridor. With a train traveling 125 m.p.h., passengers could travel from San Francisco to Los Angeles in five hours, according to one report.

If the train traveled 185 m.p.h.--a speed reached by French trains--that same trip would take slightly more than three hours.

Four other high-speed corridors have been selected across the nation, but only two routes have been announced. One is to run 647 miles from Detroit to Chicago, with branches to St. Louis and Milwaukee. The other would go from Miami to Orlando, a 350-mile route.