Yes, incroyable sounds about right. My theory is that this country was never invaded by Napoleon, and so we have no experience of governments that decide what to do and then do it. This can be a bad thing, of course, but not when it comes to HSR. I must say that I don't think putting the trains actually into the I-5 median would work, but there is room in the corridor to run them nearby.

Nevertheless, denial continues to be the order of the day.

(1) The belief persists that tiny Valley communities will generate more passengers than Los Angeles.

(2) The belief persists that the idea was to take excess capacity from the airways. On the contrary, the idea was to put the airways out of business. In addition, it was expected that a rail line would generate new trips, from passengers who would not care to fly.

(3) The belief persists that this story is "old news." It's a shame that the news media are coming late to the party, and it would have been nice had they had this story at the time it happened, but for those of us who are watching the train wreck -- figuratively speaking -- from the sidelines, it's helpful to understand the history of how we got there. So it's not old news.