For some reason the L.A. Times is one of the more vocal critics of high-cost rail.  They usually fall reliably in line with other government pipe dreams, but this one gets their regular, pointed attention including here this week when they report

The Big Tujunga Wash, among Southern California’s most powerful and least developed rivers,  is at ground zero of a growing political battle over the route the California bullet train would take as it enters the Los Angeles basin.

One proposal is a quarter-mile-long elevated viaduct (what could go wrong there?) or a long tunnel or some other undefined route other than this E2 route.  Here's the boondoggly kicker

In its business plan adopted earlier this year, it punted the problem down the road and said it would be the last segment it would build, if it can find a source for about $43.5 billion that it does not now have.

So shovels are in dirt in the Central Valley without the route or funding to get to the southern destination.  Great plan.  And here is an argument near and dear to B'gamers

Meanwhile, Los Angeles school board member Monica Ratliff introduced a resolution that would oppose E2, in part because it would pass within 1,500 feet of four public elementary schools and two high schools.