Funniest part is:
1.) The law that authorized the High Speed Rail project in California, said that the first segment would be built (as you mentioned) between two places that few have ever heard of, not near any major population centers... and also mandated that later segments would NOT be built until that first segment was profitable on its own with no further subsidies!
2.) When the first proposal was made, it was said to cost some $25 billion. Half of that ($12 billion) was said to come from private investors, the rest from gummint. Now the Business plan has come out, and (also as you mentioned) the cost has somehow tripled to more than $90 billion... but only $5 billion will now come from private investors.
No, I don't see anything wrong with this project, do you? Full speed ahead!
After all, California had this extra $90 billion just lying around, with nothing better to spend it on..... 
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ON EDIT:
BTW, California's population is about 37 million. Let's see, $98 billion divided into that comes out to...
...approx. $2,600 for every man, woman, child, and illegal alien in the state.
...put another way, a little more than $10,000 from each family of four.
My family is five people, plus a grandma we're supporting makes six. Hey, I had nothing better to do with $16,000 that will be taken from me (one way or another)... before the first train even pulls out of the station. And certainly before my sorry rear end ever hits one of the seats. Not that I had any real need to go at high speed between two towns in the Central Valley, hundreds of miles from my house, that I haven't even driven through in at least the last thirty years.
