>>1959883Out of many problems acquiring property was and is a basket case for the Cali HSR despite lots of owners willing to sell and go through with relocating infrastructure and wells. Without having proper designs flushed out (less than 15% by the state's own estimate) they started taking and bulldozing productive farm land and then failed to pay the former owners for years at a time. There's agency infighting, lack of educated personal, and endless subcontractors & consultants. Plenty of people to throw their hands up and say "not my problem" as the bureaucracy chugs along.
As of this week they're going through another round of procurement and RFQs for track and overhead systems due to the length of delays, 40 year high inflation, and massive jumps in general costs. They're not expecting to be purchasing trainsets or testing on the 171 mile initial segment between Bakersfield and Merced till 2028! Just imagine how much worse our economic and political climate will be by then.
The Shinkansen will in all likelihood be running customers to Shin-Sapporo before they even have trains moving on the Cali HSR. There are too many people in America that benefit and profit off of delaying these kinds of projects into oblivion.
