Look, leaving aside the partisan politics, what everyone seems to forget is that NO form of transportation pays its own way. Not the airline business, not buses or trucks, and certainly not passenger trains. All of them receive some degree of taxpayer subsidization.

High speed rail might work in some places, and in some it won't. I have my doubts about California, because the physical barrier, i.e. the Tehachapi Mountains, will likely prove to be too high a financial hurdle to clear. What would be necessary for true high speed rail from LAX to SFO would be a direct alignment over Tejon Pass, which would involve a lot of tunneling and would be cost prohibitive. This route was explored back in thre 1920s bt Santa Fe, and they concluded the numbers did not pencil out, even back then before large scale competition for freight and passenger traffic by trucks and airplanes.

It would probably make more sense, if the money were available, to multi-track the Tehachapi line, and extend Amtrak service on the old SP line, and maybe initiate new service like Central Valley (Bakersfield and Fresno) to Las Vegas, for example.

Just my two cents.