If it leads to another supportive congress member for passenger rail, we'll take it.

When you have a decade of frivolous lawsuits trying to stop the project and years of political attempts to kill it, delays happen and costs go up. That said, the new CAHSRA CEO Ian Choudry has done a lot to turn the project around, speed up construction, and bring in private sector funding.

Dems passed a HSR funding bill during Obama's tenure. When Tea Party Repubs took over the House and Senate, they removed the funding. Sen. Markey and Rep. Moulton (Dems-Massachussetts) have repeatedly introduced HSR funding bills

In the EU, there is pubic ownership of track that is open to competition by private sector operators. There are lines that the private sector can make money operating, but that's because, like aviation, the infrastructure is publicly owned.

This argument only makes sense if airlines had to build airports, pay for security, and pay for air traffic control; and if trucking and bus companies had to build highways. That said, Japan's Shinkansen is fully privatized (after the gov't build the track) and is profitable. Continues...