The ongoing debacle of this HSR indicates that our CA politicians are not grounded in reality. Just a tiny bit of analysis would shut it down immediately. Instead, state and federal funds are being squandered.

It's instructive to compare this situation with the adjacent headline: "Four arrested for allegedly stealing $50K worth of lululemon merchandise"

The only way to make this turkey fly is to broker some sort of deal with major Silicon Valley employers to fund the San Jose to Modesto (or is it Merced? Have mercy!) section and use it to colonize the Central Valley as Silicon Valley bedrooms. We can export our overcrowding and reduce pressure on water and schools here and provide a feeder to the north end of the high speed rail to no where. The Southern end is a civil engineering nightmare (look into the history of the Old Southern Pacific's attempts to build a direct route from Bakersfield to LA -- rather than Tehachapi and Cajon passes) and will probably never be built.