I really don't relish being the resident party pooper cum crackpot but the real problem here is personalities, power brokers and their hubris, and vested interests.

There is not just one man behind the curtain but a clique, the usual suspects who have been pushing buttons and pulling strings all along. Why should they change any policies since they are winning? Mr. Big, aka the Ranch, looks to be getting exactly what it wanted, which is no SoCal HSR at all. Why should it change a triumphant policy? There are no pols with the stones to take these worthies on, certainly not Gavin nor Villa.

There seems to exist a sort of inverse and perverse relationship between large amounts of "free" public money(OPM) and stupidity and waste. Ergo BART the paradigm. Politically the crystal ball is actually pretty clear: they plan to effectively overthrow Trump shortly and divert mass quantities of federal billions to California. Plus ca change plus c'est la meme chose.

The only immediate hope for some reset is that the Germans might throw a hissy fit when they truly grasp the magnitude of this fiasco and threaten to back out of their contract. And maybe the UP just goes totally incalcitrant about any cooperation whatsoever.