The central valley is where growth is expected. See growth projections into the middle of the century. It is expected to double in population. Look at the rate

The central valley is where growth is expected. See growth projections into the middle of the century. It is expected to double in population. Look at the rate of growth already. These "little towns" of 100k people basically double in size every 20 years. Greenfield is where the growth happens because CA urban politicians are against meaningful amounts of infill development. If they built it along the 5 in 50 years when the central valley has over 15 million people, you'd say it was foolish not serving these communities when they had a chance. Brightline is building a victorville to vegas train. They have no plan to reach LA. Maybe as close as Rancho Cucamonga. In either case no work has been done yet on that project while construction on the HSR is ongoing.