If you check out the website wherein dwell the cheerleaders for the hsr you will will quickly be informed that according to Prop 1A only 24 stations can be built on the line.

I got flakked pretty bad when I pointed out in the real world laws are subject to the winds of political change. All you need is some compliant judges.

One advantage of the I-5 alignment is that it is remote from settlements and you can probably get away with a racetrack hundreds of miles long between stations. As for the Grapevine it is manifestly more direct. An engineering challenge but less trackage to maintain. If the Tehachapis route were free of shortcomings there would be no protest about its selection. But it is still very moutainous, requires tunnels too, is in active seismic territory and the ruling gradient evidently is still around 3.5%. In short it is ugly too but longer.

The incrowd at the CHSRA is claiming that the Tehachapis is seismically safer, which I suggest is a tremendous self-serving stretch. With our present seismic knowledge it is impossbile to predict which route is more likely to be damaged in a quake.

This is California. We take risks. Let the engineers and tunnel builders do their thing and mine the Grapevine.