A group of Southern California transportation officials are in Washington today, making their case that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provide funds for an initial high-speed rail corridor between Downtown Los Angeles and Anaheim.

Officials are seeking more than $2 billion from Washington for a project expected to cost north of $4 billion. You can read the full text of the Metro press release here.

The key thing to understand is that the money is only for building of the tracks and accompanying infrastructure — an important first step to having high-speed rail service. The funding application says that trains could run by 2018, but there remains questions about whether state officials have the money, equipment or willingness to start bullet train service between L.A. and Anaheim by then.