Bakersfield to Burbank is the most important segment of the entire project. Bite the bullet on the cost overruns and get it built. There are no good standard speed rail replacement options. There is no incremental option for this missing gap.

Pacheco is what should get postponed or canceled. Although Altamont incremental improvements would still be very expensive. At least that would could be cost-shared with ACE and the cross-bay commuter proposal. Though the Bay Area Moneywastercrats will choose the most expensive version of light rail instead to cross the bay. Building isolates segments on both ends first, trying to blackmail for future funding of the most critical segment. Like with CAHSR.