To put this into perspective, China's high-speed rail project in Indonesia connecting Jakarta and Bandung (a distance of 143 km) at a speed of 350 km/h was completed in just four months at total cost of $7.3 billion.
This line has seen an impressive number of passengers, with approximately 2 million people utilizing the service.
This project would have made sense if they went straight down the 101 corridor from NorCal to SoCal It would have been faster than flying and at some point, competitive price-wise. Biggest advantage would be reducing carbon and keeping cars off freeways.
But to get Federal funding, they had to angle the line inland so it hit towns where it made no financial sense to hit, but had a powerful GOP rep who wanted to bring some construction bacon to the home district. Once done, it will take longer to travel, will have more stops, and cost more to operate.
For a fraction of money, they could have just electrified Amtrak and at least gotten a little benefit out of reduced carbon emissions.
It's just so damned stupid.