The Techachapis seems the more conservative approach and that is its problem. I think the voters expected something more audacious, ie, faster.

I am suggesting that the I-5 Grapevine could be torqued up to be a half hour faster than the Tehachapis-Palmdale route. The CHSRA groupies insist that it is just a few minutes difference, but they are discounting the extra distance of the 99 corridor, its extra stops and the certainty that the noise and vibration of 220mph will prove unacceptable to the urban areas enroute.

You will be able to open it up along I-5 from one end to the other - a thrill that will pack in the passengers. That's why I assert(perhaps counterintuitively)that the I-5-Grapevine has better patronage patronage than Palmdale. Most of California's population live in the Bay Area and the LA-San Diego area. They would support I-5 because that's the way they would go not thru Mojave.

And it is just a matter of time before California fully legalizes casinos, way reducing the traffic to Sin City. The State can't afford not to.