You know, the need for HSR wouldn't be needed if the railroads and the government could just sit down and discuss everything reasonably. And why the need to travel at 200 mph between La-La land the the Bay area in the first place ?

With the UP moving nearly all of it's traffic off the FRC and onto the Donner route, what the CZ in it's present form & ownership couldn't travel back into the FRC as it once did which would avoid the "over capacity" talk always forthcoming out of the UP and possibly run on time ?

And how about using the West Valley line for the CS ? Aside from Chico State, how much traffic is the present East Valley line generating for Amtrak anyway ?

And why build a whole new line just to serve the HSR anyway ? Why not just build out to Tracy via the old SP ROW over Altamont and connect with the Westside line to Fresno like it used to be used in years long since past by the old SP for the Owl service ? The line is severed at Los Banos, but it's intact all the way into Fresno, isn't it ?

And then from there, what is possible ?

And how much traffic is really going up & down the UP's Coast Line ? Is it of such quantity that running any passenger toting train up & down it other than the CS is prohibitive especially in these hard economic times we're all faced with these days ?

Just like the upgrades on the BNSF line out in the valley that the State of California invested in a few years ago because of why ? The BNSF made sure that the SJ ran on time as best as possible and if the same was applied to say the Coast Line for the CS or for the CZ, would you think that having to build a completely brand new ROW just for a HSR train could be money better spent elsewhere if the two sides cooperated and worked together towards a common goal ?