California High Speed Rail Presentation (Ushsr 2023 Conference) [video]

Brian Kelly (the CEO of CAHSR authority) is in DC to ask for funding, I think the strongest part begins during the Q&A segment at 30:30:

> No megaproject at this magnitude can succeed without a strong federal partner. It’s true for the interstate highway system, it’s true for major airport improvements, it’s true for all kinds of megaprojects and 85-15 in favor of the state is not the usual recipe for advancing a project of this magnitude.

> [...] We’re being quite candid. This is the year. We have to have the demonstration of the federal partnership, and we have to have it in 2023.

> I’m trying to move this project [...] from being a 119 miles that’s not a great operating segment to a project that is a 172 miles to start, to start [emph. theirs], that will actually move people and connect cities, and I can only do that, if I have a federal partner.

> For me the project has always been San Francisco to L.A. and Anaheim, and it still is. But we don’t have all the money to do it right now. And just like every major transit project I’m aware of, you build what you can build with what you have.