High-speed rail is commonplace in many other countries. Will it track in the U.S.?

With high-speed rail ambitions in California delayed by years and coming in at a higher-than-expected cost, Lou Thompson, who sat on the state's high-speed rail peer review group, said failure is always an option. He doesn't think failure is what will necessarily happen in California, but earlier ambitions have been scaled back. When California voters approved a bullet train between Los Angeles and San Francisco in 2008, the estimated price tag was 33 billion, with a target completion date of 2020.