Not really. Gavin Newsom implied that he was pulling the plug on it in his state-of-the-state address a few months ago. But when there was an inevitable backlash from the climate-change crowd (and also, undoubtedly, from the contractors and consultants who are enriching themselves on this boondoggle), Gavvy walked it back and declared that he just meant that he wanted to concentrate on the first phase or something like that. The project is still more or less a “go.”
I think if LA had concentrated just on it’s own region, and built a ridership pattern....a better use of the money (probably less than a billion a year) could have been used to focus just on that region. Trying to make this into an entire state ‘gimmick’ was the failure route to this. Go ask the population just how thrilled they are to go and spend $200 for a round-trip ticket to SF for high-speed rail travel....you won’t find more than one-percent of the population who desires this.
I knew pulling the plug was too good to be true and probably wouldn’t happen.
I loathe Gruesome.