In my opinion, the CA high speed rail will eventually be completed between San Francisco and LA. It will just take much longer to build and much more money than anyone thought possible.
No Where to No Where is actually going to be between very populated areas. The population of the CA central valley is booming. The main roads are already clogged in the middle of farm fields. Cities such as Bakersfield, Stockton and Fresno are rapidly expanding. The Sacramento (in the north) to Bakersfield (in the south) central corridor will be as populated as the Washington to Boston corridor by the end of this century if current trends hold.
The biggest and most expensive project is building the tunnels through the Coast and Tehachapi mountains. Both of these mountain ranges are subject to earthquakes. The last time that I looked, there are several proposed routes.
Overhead catenary is under construction between San Jose and San Francisco. The catenary is designed to handle the high speed trains. The initial use will be for the San Jose to San Francisco commuter service. A new $2 billion train station was just opened in San Francisco. It is designed to be the high speed train terminal. (This is the train station that was opened a year ago and then closed for a year when the support beams started to crack. It just reopened following repairs.)
I think that CA high speed rail will probably be done by 2050. This will be beyond my lifetime but it will come.
NH Joe
This is high speed rail on the G&O.
