I wish them the best of luck but there is no way this will make any money due to the prohibitive construction costs. Construction in California already costs more due to the hills and the earthquake risks. Throw in some mentally handicapped environmentalists and you start to understand why it takes so long to build anything in California. Due to them and the NIMBYS, many in Bay Area cities which voted 60%+ for HSR, the costs for the finished product will be out of this world. At that point it will either be uncompetitive vs air travel or it will be subsidized by the tax payers. Those who think there isn't a market for this don't know what they are talking about, but at the same time no one is going to pay more to travel by rail rather than plane.
If the legislature is serious about this, they should have tried to shield it from lawsuits somehow but I don't see it happening and the costs will keep ballooning.
Wouldn't be like that over here.
