>>1649651There are a couple reasons working in conjunction that delay progress:
1. Environmental conflicts & regulations--this isn't the "nature" environment, but rather the urban environment--how HSR affects people and the neighborhood. A lot of people don't like railroads being near them and will go to court to make sure that doesn't happen.
2. Land acquisition--a combination of local resistance and poor funding make grabbing all the parcels of land in a timely manner difficult. More court cases involved.
3. Lack of engineering talent--the HSR Authority is largely made of non-expert administrators who need to hire consultants to check that their contractors are doing a good job. Managing a project is difficult when you have absolutely no domain expertise over anything but writing checks.
4. Contractor malfeasance--the majority contractor for HSR, Tutor Perini, is notorious for lowballing bids (forcing the State to accept their low bid by law), and then raising the construction cost during the project. They also messed up during the construction of some of the major infrastructure pieces, necessitating a do-over. They're a bit of a cancer.
That being said, I'm still in favor of the project (and the route, in broad strokes). I like fast trains, and I think the route is necessary to politically and culturally unite the Inland Empire with out-of-touch SF & LA.
I wish it was better run, but I'd rather have it done expensively than not at all. The Shinkansen cost 2x its original budget, but it was worth it. We might take 4x, but better my tax money go to speedy choo-choos than sheltering drug addicts.
