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I put my foot in my mouth on that one
From what I understand the reason is federalism. In CA and elsewhere every town, county, and landowner needs to be compensated financially. That's why the planned LA to San Francisco line bends way out to central CA and is getting sued left and right. The counties don't want the line going through without stopping in their cities and landowners are suing to get a higher price for their land from the government.
My family was involved in a government takeover like this when they widened a highway thorugh the small town we lived in. It was going to require the tearing down the restaurant we owned since it would subsequently be in the easement of the new/wider highway.
I am pretty sure they secured the rights to land or claimed imminent domain prior to building anything. If you've ever driven the 99 or 5 along the line that they are building it's essentially farmland. It's not like they are moving people's homes en masse. The fact is that there are massive cost over runs, years of delays, partial rebuilds of substandard construction, and an overall lack of transparency. It's a taxpayer boondoggle that we unfortunately cannot extricate ourselves from at this point.
