Major section of Californias $231B High Speed Rail could shrink to tiny track ending at remote orchard

California’s $231 billion high-speed rail dream could hit a literal dead end at a remote Central Valley orchard.The state’s long-troubled bullet train could be forced to dramatically shrink its first operating segment, potentially leaving both Merced and Bakersfield off the initial route as the project barrels toward a massive cash crunch.Instead, California may have to pour its remaining money into completing a much smaller stretch of track between Madera and Poplar Avenue in rural Kern County, an isolated endpoint surrounded largely by farmland and orchards, project Inspector General Benjamin Belnap told KCRA’s “California Politics 360.”The drastic downsizing could become reality if the California High-Speed Rail Authority runs through its available funding as expected by December 2027.Without another infusion of cash from Sacramento, officials may have little choice but to abandon, at least temporarily, plans to connect the first operating segment all the way from Merced to Bakersfield and focus their dwindling resources on the shorter Central Valley stretch.The warning represents another potential setback for the decades-in-the-making bullet train, whose original vision was to whisk passengers between Los Angeles and San Francisco.With enough money no longer available to complete that vision in the near term, the state has focused on getting a 171-mile Merced-to-Bakersfield segment up and running.That portion alone is expected to cost as much as $36 billion.But even that scaled-back goal could be in jeopardy.Belnap said he previously raised alarms about the approaching fiscal cliff, but lawmakers ended their legislative session in September without resolving it.State leaders will now have to move quickly next year to identify additional money in the budget or pursue borrowing if they want to prevent construction plans from being further curtailed, according to Belnap.“When I first got to the High-Speed Rail Authority, I was charged with looking at t...