Be still, my heart!
An editorial in today’s Los Angeles Times slams the management of our coming “bullet train” because of its planners’ change of plans — another one — under which the first segment of the planned San Francisco to Los Angels, and a bit beyond, bullet train would be built in Northern California while the more difficult segment of the route over the Tehachapi Mountains and on to Los Angeles would come later. “But left unsaid in the draft 2016 business plan is how exactly the [railroad] authority will get the money to build the bullet train to Southern California.” So the first segment of the bullet train would go only from San Jose to the Central Valley . . .”and the rail line would peter out in some farmland near Shafter, about 20 miles south of Bakersfield.”
“[T]he plan does not explain how the authority will come up with the estimated $43.5 billion needed to construct the rail line from the Central Valley to Los Angeles and ultimately Anaheim, which it has planned to do by 2029.”
For the whole LA Times piece, see Editorial, Who Is Going to Pay for the Bullet Train to L.A., Los Angeles Times, April 17, 2016.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-0417-high-speed-rail-20160418-story. html
By the way; have you ever been to the farmland 20 miles south of Bakersfield? No? It’s the proverbial middle of nowhere. So take our advice and spare yourself the cost and effort of getting there.