Like the dog that growls and wags its tail at the same time, it's hard to know which end to believe. One of the big problems all along is that HSRA was slapping a high-speed line down on top of nothing, whereas in other countries there is a conventional rail understructure to build on. The southern California agreement ($1 billion out of the $9.5 billion bond issue) looks like an attempt to upgrade the conventional rail system to provide a basis for high speed.

Or is it? Because what is going on, in effect, is a hefty upgrade of the Metrolink commuter railway. This might be needed, but one can't help thinking that, suppose the high speed project collapses, the state can say that they at least got some improvements in their commuter railway.

Fine so far as it goes, but not what the voters thought they were getting.