Government inefficiency does not just exist it proliferates. Bell is just the tip of the iceberg.

The "experts" cannot be trusted, except to boondoggle. By that I mean latch onto the most expensive and dumbest alternative and then dig in the heels. PB is the worst - they never met a berm, aerial, viaduct, stilt, they did not like. Apparently the only expensive item they don't like is base tunnels. They must be conceiving the hsr as a Roman aqueduct - water level all the way. Southeast of Bakersfield they engineered a very lengthy viaduct in the boonies and if remember right this is close to a recently discovered fault. So much for the seismic hand-wringing; that FUD evidently only applies to Tejon. I have come to the conclusion that their problem with Tejon is not so much NIH but the simple boondoggle principle - Tehachapi is longer and thus bigger and better contracts.

If they could come up with a plan for Tehachapi that was freight-friendly, I could see it. AFAIK that possibility was never considered. I fear their Tehachapi Detour will prove to be way underutilized - trains half-empty - and it will be one big white elephant.

So, from my pov, cut the funding and force them back to the drawing board. Maybe diesel incremental is the way to proceed.