High-speed rail: Tunnel under the San Gabriels?

Don't Railroad Us

From Jeff Barnidge, Contra Costa Times:

...The news just keeps getting better for Gov. Jerry Brown's bullet train. When the state's High Speed Rail Authority asked private engineering firms for suggestions on how to streamline construction of its first "operating segment"---connecting Burbank to Merced, of all places---their most notable response was there's insufficient government funding to complete the task and little hope of attracting private dollars to supplement it.

Then came a Los Angeles Times report, quoting scientists and construction experts, that its projected completion date of 2022 is a fantasy, if for no other reason than the segment will require at least 36 miles of tunneling through the San Gabriel and Tehachapi mountains. Plus, cost overruns are almost an inevitability.

Given that the original cost estimate for the entire project was $33 billion, which was adjusted to $98 billion before settling at $68 billion, we can safely assume no one has any clue what the real number will be...

See also Rail Transit Cost Overruns