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Does anybody else find this squabbling kind of embarrassing?

It's quite clear that California has no political, fiscal or operational capability to finish (or even begin!) this project.

Given this premise, how would you evaluate the discourse surrounding it?

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It's a ploy from the rail companies to have the tax payer foot the bill to build these high-speed rail lines, knowing full and well that there is just not enough demand at the price (per trip) they are proposing.

Sure there will be the occasional passenger train to warrant keeping it around, but the long term goal is to have the rail companies step in and say "See, no demand for passengers, but since you have all of these tracks built, we'll gladly use them to haul our freight."

Oh, I'm sure they'll begin it. We'll get a shiny new sixty-billion dollar rail line from Bakersfield to Fresno, and probably two or three trains a day along it.

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