Ummm....shouldn't we make the cake first, BEFORE
trying to put on the icing? (HSR is definitely the icing
on the cake of a really good rail transportation system --
which we do not yet have here in California.)

Supporters of HSR in California are completely ignoring
the effects of our horrible drought. With only 1-1/2 to 2
years of water left in our reservoirs (state total at present
rates of use and present rates of precipitation) -- just exactly
where do you HSR supporters think the 38 million people
now living in California will get the water we need? And
just exactly where will all the new residents that people
blithely assume will be arriving get water? Climate scientists
think this horrible drought is not likely to end any time soon --
as it seems to be caused by global warming. Even if it is not
a result of global warming, we have to face the fact that
100-year droughts have happened a number of times in the
past 8,000 years. Long droughts are normal for this part
of the US. As a matter of fact, there is evidence that
California had an unusually wet climate for most of the
20th century.

(Scientists learned these alarming facts by studying the
thickness of the rings of ancient dead trees -- a field that is
called "dendrochronology".)

There will be no need whatsoever for HSR in California if
there are few people left -- because the drought has forced
most of us ot leave.