A lot of posters are saying politics. Doesn’t that imply it did have to be sold in certain ways in order to get passed?

i.e. A modest version with a negligible risk of boondoggle would likely never have gotten enough attention in Sacramento to make it out of committee.

It got sold that way because of CA's slightly weird proposition system.

There's no real political willpower for transit in California as a state; it's all located in some of the cities, which are plodding along relatively slowly but consistently (the San Diego Trolley is miles more than it was 20 years ago).