Despite some progress, state’s high-speed rail is $100 billion short and many years from reality

California’s high-speed rail train could feature an indoor play area for children and seating options that would allow people to meet as a group or cocoon in a reading nook. “Schedules are stretching out, demand estimates have fallen and financing is inadequate and unstable,” said high-speed rail peer-review group chair Louis Thompson at a recent state legislative hearing. The high-speed rail peer-review group has recommended the Legislature commission an “independent review of the economic and financial justification for the project” before “recommitting” to the first phase. “We want a federal partner that celebrates California and that celebrates what high-speed rail not only brings to our state, but really, to our nation,” state assembly Transportation Chair Lori D. Wilson said. “The authority wanted to advance work to keep the federal dollars which was understandable, but in so doing, it got into construction before some of the pre-construction activities were done.” The rail authority essentially tried to learn how to develop the country’s first high-speed rail system in real time.