Note that the diversion (appropriate name for something related to water politics) is of the remaining HSR bond funds, not the whole project. It's not $68B for water; it's probably more like $6-8B. Still not chump change, and I agree with you and Bob that without some clear path toward a useful HSR system the money should be reprogrammed to real, useful rail projects. That takes voter approval, since the voters set up the program in the first place.

OTOH the latest scheme of giving up on a Tehachapi crossing "for now" and moving more aggressively on a Bay Area connection would support an eventual "Ecotopia" split of the state at the Tehachapis - alternative transport north, and let the south stew in its smog. And it would tie the Valley towns more closely to the Bay Area, perhaps reducing the push for expansion of the Jefferson bunch south of Butte/Colusa inland; Fresno, for instance, would become a commuter town for Silicon Valley being about the same travel time from it on HSR as Tracy and sometimes Livermore are now. /sarcasm