This fiasco could have been so easily avoided by starting at the ends which have the numbers, in population and dollars. At the north end Caltrain is receiving electrification, altho too many millions were wasted on CBOSS. And contrary to the argument Norcal is getting all the bennies the Peninsula rejected PB's elevated nightmare in favor of the "blend", thus lowering the Peninsula's take of the funding.

In the south we have the obvious just sitting there: it is called Tejon or Grapevine as you prefer and it looms as Vesuvius looms over Naples. They could have cut thru with a reasonable amount of tunneling and probably hardly even touching the blessed Ranch appreciably. Clem's on to something with the suggestion the engineers factor in a somewhat steeper maximum ruling gradient, which electric traction can easily handle.

Conversely building out a new line paralleling the Tehachapi Loop detour and making it too steep for freight just comes across as nutty to me. Passenger only will manifest a very low use factor and a very poor cost/benefit ratio IMHO.