If, and a big IF, the bullet train ever progresses, those engineering and construction technical challenges to get over the mountains between Bakersfield and Los Angeles will be reviewed and scrutinized under a microscope. The result of those public reviews would result in an image for the public of safety concerns that would then negatively impact any potential ridership for decades. In addition, there may not be engineering or construction firms large enough to take on the liability exposure to their firms to take on this “mission impossible” to get the train over the grapevine.

Driving or flying can be done at virtually any time of day, but the inflexibility of how many train departure times would be available from a limited number of trains would impact the convenience factor offered by cars and planes and thus also adversely affect train ridership. The snowballing effect of lower ridership would be higher fares for those that do use the train as there would be no state subsidies available.