By Chris Reed

On Wednesday, there was yet another negative headline coming out of Sacramento about the bullet-train fiasco:

“A State Assembly budget committee voted Wednesday to approve a loan for the High-Speed Rail Authority.

“The $26.2 million would cover operating costs for the agency that’s building California’s bullet train while it seeks to resolve legal challenges over its use of voter-approved bonds.

“In 2008, Californians approved Proposition 1A, authorizing the state to issue $9 billion in bonds to build a bullet train that speeds riders from Los Angeles to San Francisco in  less than three hours.

“But critics say the High-Speed Rail Authority’s latest plan for the project won’t provide that fast of a ride. ‘They are claiming that they can still meet the two hours and forty minutes, but they don’t have any evidence to show that,’ said attorney Stu Flashman, who’s suing the state on behalf of various cities and environmental groups to stop the project.”

While this is bad news for bullet-train fans, it can be seen as great news for bullet-train foes — i.e., sane people. It shows that as gung ho as Jerry Brown and the rail cultists are about the project, they’re nervous about the potency of the legal challenges it faces.

As they should be. In a just world, the bullet train would be dead. State law should matter.