I think the BART analogy is totally appropriate. C'mon, guys, this is California - what better place to perfect the technology to tunnel thru faults? Ask yourself what would Howard Hughes do? He sure as hell wouldn't traipse after the 150 year old UP route over the Tehachapis. The freight rr's are limited by the need for a much lower ruling gradient than the hsr can handle.

The only reason I have been pushing the I-5 route is that theoretically it could save a whole lot of money. AFAIK it has not been claimed that the hsr could not utilize the median and save on overpasses. If you would have to cut a new ROW the savings would evaporate.

Initially I favored the 99 alignment for the hsr, but when you consider the cost and political problems associated, incremental improvements on that corridor in conjunction with the freight railroads using diesels make more sense to me. Fresno and Bakersfield could still be served with an hsr branch to the I-5 area base tunnels and still be faster to LA than thru Palmdale.