Because of the cost, it seems to me that the Bakersfield-LA Basin (via Palmdale or otherwise) will be one of the last designed and built - perhaps actually the last. There's plenty of time to keep fighting over it, and plenty of money to be made by lawyers at various points in the process. All of the plans so far are sketchy at best - nowhere near even preliminary engineering. In highway planning terms - what's been done so far for anything other than Madera to just north of Bakersfield might possibly qualify as a Route Concept Report, and even that's questionable.

I'm confused about one minor thing, though. Saw an article that says CAHSR is cutting the south end off the next construction segment to re-study it because Shafter sued over the elevated structure through town. Why is that even on the table? They went around Hanford, so why not Shafter too? And Bakersfield ... even if the Tehachapi/Palmdale route is used, why push through downtown Bakersfield and deal with the City's lawsuit? Why not resurrect the plan to go around the west and (if Mojave-bound) south sides where there's less development in the way. A station at an intersection with that "parkway" along the river would allow bus or even rail transit into town with a fairly quick trip (just a few miles; about like the airport), or the station could be near 99. All in all, I suspect that the delay and re-think of that section might result in a better design than was first attempted.

Cheers!