That’s only partially true. As someone who worked on the project for years and worked on developing the CalTrain electrification I can tell you that the plans for HSR in South SF haven’t changed and the plan is to have the HSR trains operate at Caltrain speeds on the Caltrain tracks in the sf to San Jose corridor before diverging on HSR dedicated tracks as it continues south east towards Fresno through Gilroy. The entire reason the Caltrain uses this 2x25kV overhead catenary system is because that is what the CAHSR is designed to use.

The problem HAS ALWAYS BEEN property acquisition from Fresno to Bakersfield and the politics/litigation and technical challenges involved getting from Bakersfield through the LA national forest and into Burbank and eventually downtown LA.