This goes back to my original point about visibility of engineering work. Clearly, one of the biggest problems that California high speed rail has to solve is buying land for the track. But nobody sees a few land purchases as "building high speed rail". Until there is a concrete pylon with some train tracks on top, people think nothing is being done. But of course, without that pre-work, nothing can be done.

Yep. And it's a hard, hard problem. Buying land or right-of-way in high-value, dense urban environments is considerably more expensive then buying it in unused wilderness. And dealing with each municipality's politics along the way is far more difficult and expensive than dealing with unincorporated, unpopulated land.

I live in Minneapolis, and remember when the 35W bridge fell. Republicans tried to prevent adding lanes for future light rail to the new bridge (particularly then-governor Coleman, who was eyeing a presidential run), and our mayor basically held the bridge hostage - he told the state and federal governments that if there weren't provisions for future light rail, that the city wouldn't be issuing the necessary construction permits for the new bridge. (A call I fully supported, btw.)

This is why it's more expensive than the 1870s.