That has not stopped the HSRA from racing to get construction started by 2012.

ECONOMIST: High-speed trains

The biggest such change is to transfer day-to-day operations from the High-Speed Rail Authority (HSRA), set up to oversee the project, to the California Department of Transportation.

ECONOMIST: High-speed trains

In defending its decision to lay track in the middle of nowhere, the HSRA argues that there is plenty of space there, little resistance from local residents, and that the line from Los Angeles to the Bay Area will eventually have to go through that part of California anyway.

ECONOMIST: High-speed trains