When the decidedly anti-rail Congress eliminated future funding for high-speed rail late last week, California's bullet train looked to be running out of track real fast. Although House Republicans were eagerly taking credit for killing Obama's "misguided" national high-speed rail network, there's still plenty of hope for California's HSR project.

On a more local level, the withering federal funds caused some fiscal handwringing over the new Transbay Terminal. As the Chronicle's Matier & Ross fretted yesterday, if High-Speed Rail disappears what will become of the HSR station in the terminal's lower level? Consistently conservative Superviser Sean Elsbernd seems sure the city will end up with, "a big basement under the most expensive bus station in the world" if the project doesn't find funding soon.

But the reports of the project being completely dead are exaggerated, according to the HSR Authority. As the Examiner reported over the weekend, California's slice of the $100 million in Federal Funding the House killed last week was "a token amount" compared to the overall $98.5 billion dollar budget for the LA - SF project. Congress won't be taking away the much more significant $3.3 billion in funds they have already promised to the project. Between now and 2015, the HSR Authority has already counted on getting exactly zero dollars in federal funding.

Meanwhile, those pre-committed dollars are still enough to get the test section up and running in the Central Valley and the Environmental Impact Report is already underway — two promising steps on the road to car-free, flightless travel to Los Angeles.

[LATimes]
[SFEx]
[Chron]
[CurbedSF]

Never having to drive through this again? Sob.

The East Bay and South Bay (more or less) are vying to be one of the destination points that will send travelers from SF to LA in 2½ hours. (Can you imagine? You're watch HSM and HSM2 on your iPhone and -- poof! -- you're kicking it in LA!) Over 700 miles of track would be devoted to getting you from SF to LA in record time, and tomorrow the California High Speed Rail Authority will decide on two plans for routing. Whatever the route, just thinking about getting to and from LA in such a short amount of time makes our tear ducts well up with joy. Seriously.

One option is the Gilroy-based Pacheco crossing, "which will connect to San Francisco through San Jose and the Peninsula [and] is favored because it follows existing Caltrain tracks and avoids cutting through wetland habitats around the Bay."

The second one is the Altamont, which "would better serve those who live north of Modesto, including residents moving between the Bay Area and Sacramento." This route would probably stop in Union City and "require a bridge across the Bay through the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, located mostly along the shoreline north and south of the Dumbarton Bridge."