Bullet trains connect major cities around the world on acclaimed and well-traveled routes. In France, it’s Paris to Lyon; in Japan, Tokyo to Osaka; in Italy, Florence to Rome; and in China, Beijing to Shanghai.

In California? From Gilroy to Palmdale.

Since voters approved a $33 billion high-speed electric train system in 2008, seemingly endless delays and cost overruns have turned the undertaking into an object of global ridicule. Now the latest business plan from the California High-Speed Rail Authority, made public last week, has revealed perhaps the most consequential alteration in the project’s 18-year history of diminution and disillusionment.

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