I really wish they had made the political, engineering and economic challenging decision to buld south out of Bakersfield first. Had they successfully done that and it was completed, that would have given a much needed link to the transportation system even if it was limited to passenger service only.

They forgot that the biggest reasons that most countries have built high-speed rail was that the conventional services had already been built out and were heavily used. Even if the project survives and the current section under construction is used as faster speed rail with diesel-electrics, does it create any real advantage or improvement to the passenger rail system in the region?