Same scam in a bright new package: a handful of people will get filthy rich on state money, and the thing will never ever be able to pay for itself.

Hey, we are finally getting BART into Silicon Valley, the outskirts I should say, when the new line opens in 2018!!! We are also getting a new 49er Stadium in Santa Clara which will open in September of 2014 (I assume).

And perhaps by the time HSR begins operation I will be too old to want to use it, or have reason to use it. Interesting how all this will play out when construction finally does start...

Same nonsense from the same luddites who will raise every objection to a simple project that has paid dividends many times over in countries that had the cojones to override the nimbys and naysayers and just build it, which includes Germany, France, Japan, China, Spain, Belgium and the Skandinavian countries. Many of them have economies that are far more durable than ours because they have spend the money to build infrastructure that - like the interstate highway did for the US - has lifted all of their economic boats.

This latest compromise only benefits the politicians. Very name High-Speed Rail, includes "High Speed" in it. You can't beat the law of averages. If you have a 100-mile trip done at 100mph and then bookend that with two 10-mile trips done at 20 mph, you double the length of the trip. By relying on local rail services to get riders to their destinations at both ends, you will add up to two hours to what was supposed to be a 3-hour trip, making it more like driving.

Nowhere in the world has any agency been stupid enough to try this, because they knew it would erase the very reason that people would use the HSR, which is supposed to connect urban centers with fast rail, not outer suburbs of those urban centers. With demographics showing that people are not moving out to suburbs like they used to this decision is even more ridiculous. The only thing this "compromise" will accomplish is prove the naysayers right - nobody will be riding the HSR because they won't be able to get to it fast enough.

Don't get me wrong: electrifying Caltrain is great - as a local commuter rail system, not a replacement for HSR along the peninsula.

re: "Many of them have economies that are far more durable than ours.."

If we ignore that pesky Euro crisis.

Spain has over 20% unemployment. And over 25% for young adults.

But at least a lot of the hardware and technology (equals jobs) will be coming from Japan, France and China. So I guess those countries will benefit from CA HSR.