[bombcar]

The California project didn't have to be sold the way it was - but that was the whole point, get the boondoggle started.

They could have spend a fraction of the money on improving the capital corridor and the Santa Barbara - San Diego corridor instead, but that wasn't sexy enough.

[MichaelZuo]

A lot of posters are saying politics. Doesn’t that imply it did have to be sold in certain ways in order to get passed?

i.e. A modest version with a negligible risk of boondoggle would likely never have gotten enough attention in Sacramento to make it out of committee.

[bombcar]

It got sold that way because of CA's slightly weird proposition system.

There's no real political willpower for transit in California as a state; it's all located in some of the cities, which are plodding along relatively slowly but consistently (the San Diego Trolley is miles more than it was 20 years ago).