Part of it is political pandering too. Iirc a french team made an early plan for cal hsr that involved going straight up the 5 and one day serving the central v

Part of it is political pandering too. Iirc a french team made an early plan for cal hsr that involved going straight up the 5 and one day serving the central valley through spurs. To the polticians whose communities that 5 freeway route would have bypassed that was untenable. Now the route snakes through vs following the fastest and certainly far cheaper 5 right of way (since land is already public here too).