Economic Development, California Style.
HSR through the Bay Area will likely cost considerably more than the current funding projections indicate, leaving us with a sizable shortfall when the system is ready to ply the Sacramento Valley. With litigation from Peninsula cities a massive roadblock between San Jose and San Francisco, the simpler and easier route obviously is to bring HSR to a Grand Central Station in Union City or even the Oakland Coliseum and let BART be the last mile solution. With that, the system can be up and running sooner, improvements to BART begun immediately and the local economy improved this minute, as opposed to years from now when all the litigation is finally done and all those Silicon Valley lawyers ready to retire on what will have pretty much been their lifework.
A cynic might think that because one company is better at lobbying for a HSR contract than another, our beloved pols have made up their minds and will stick to their guns, and that's why the Bay Area economy gets to suffer (and other systems get to remain stuck on hold) awaiting the glorious moment when the big train finally pulls into the station: maybe it'll still be called High Speed, but when the eventual completion date is factored in, it'll probably be known by everyone as Dead Stop Rail.
