Four billion three hundred million dollars.

No, make that “five billion (nearly) three hundred million dollars.”

That’s the price tag (for now) of all the work and infrastructure estimated to pay for a passenger train that would run along 22 miles of the county owned coastal rail corridor.

We’d like to say we were surprised … shocked … by the price tag as revealed by the executive summary of a draft Zero Emission Passenger Rail and Trail project concept report released Friday.

But we’re not.

The cost of the train was estimated at $4.28 billion.

Earlier this year the cost to rebuild 28 of the 33 bridges and trestles along the corridor was estimated at nearly $1 billion.

And the report also stated that projected average annual operating expenses would range from $34 million to $41 million.

Um, that’s a lot of money in a county where the Board of Supervisors struggled this week with budget cuts and paying for vital health services. It’s a lot of money when you consider the tax burdens already faced by residents.

And it’s a lot of money when the Regional Transportation Commission is putting together plans to extend along the entire corridor the relatively small section of recreational trail that has been established in Santa Cruz.

The draft report envisions nine passenger stations along the line that would run from Natural Bridges Drive in Santa Cruz to Pajaro (the Pajaro station would link up with the California State Rail Network that travels up and down the state). The time to travel the entire line is estimated at 45 minutes.

Commission staff, according to a Sentinel report, appear to favor a “trainset” already used in San Bernardino County that includes two passenger cars permanently coupled to a power car. The system is also compatible with multiple propulsion mechanisms including battery, hydrogen, diesel or hybrid, according to the draft study.

The report recommends the commission invest in 10 trainsets to accommodate peak service periods and maintenance schedules. This type of trainset has a capacity of 234 passengers — 116 seated and 118 standing. Hopefully, we’ll also find out what the commission thinks daily ridership will/could be, much less how they’ll get to and from the projected stations.

Now, no doubt we’ll get op-ed columns from well-meaning members of the community who have long supported a train, and who either think the cost is a) worth it; or, b) the money will be found, probably through a tax increase or through a combination of federal and state largesse. In any case, supporters say, county voters have made it plain they want a train.

So, can the county expect the state and federal governments to pay much of this huge toll?

Consider that the state’s high speed rail project has become a financial albatross. The latest blow fell last week when the mean-spirited Trump administration announced it will terminate $4 billion in grants to the bullet train, which could delay the start of even limited passenger operations for as long as a decade.

The project, in its 17th year, is supposed to link Los Angeles and San Francisco with a high-speed train that could make the trip in two hours and 40 minutes. But it’s already been scaled back numerous times, as costs spiraled and construction schedules faced repeated delays.

Over the past four years, the state has drawn down almost all of a $9 billion bond voters approved in 2008 to build the train.

The plan as originally envisioned called for deploying by 2020 220-mile-per-hour trains between the state’s two largest population centers at a cost of $33 billion. Today, building the full system is a distant goal and the cost has ballooned to about $128 billion — if it ever happens.

All this to say that the cost estimates for the Santa Cruz coastal train will undoubtedly rise over the years. Santa Cruz County residents, long desiring an alternative to Highway 1 gridlock, will have to consider how far they’re willing to go to ride it.

The RTC Board will discuss the report at its monthly meeting, at 6 p.m. Thursday, in the Watsonville City Council chambers at 275 Main St., fourth floor in Watsonville.