I don't know if this has anything to do with the decision, but there is also a massive amount of lobbying of the California government by the airlines as Bay Ar

I don't know if this has anything to do with the decision, but there is also a massive amount of lobbying of the California government by the airlines as Bay Area to/from LA/OC/SD is a major cash cow. Should someone create a more convenient method of getting between the two, it'd be a major loss for them. The Shinkansen in Japan has to be the most convenient thing I've ever traveled on. Show up 20 min before the train, buy a ticket, two hours later I'm over 200 miles away. Sure the ride itself is longer than the flight, but there are all those other time sinks from flying that no one thinks of - commuting, boarding, security, waiting for your baggage, etc. that add up. Say I travel from Santa Ana to San Francisco. It takes me 30 minutes to get to the airport, if I'm parking there, say 15 minutes to find a spot and walk to the terminal, up to 30 minutes to get through security, probably 30 minutes at the gate because you make time in case things go wrong, and 30 minutes of boarding. That's 1.5 hours spent (without the commute) before the plane leaves on its 60 minute flight. A modern high speed train would complete that trip before the plane even left.