California's high-speed rail needs $100 billion to finish -- scrapping the project is a possibility

[SarahD]

3. Not necessarily.

They could build a more local version by shortening the line and reducing the speed, maybe adding more local stations, things like that. The sunken cost argument invariably comes up when trying to keep going on these Big Dream projects, but it rests on the assumption that it must be all or nothing, that the only choices are to complete the project as envisioned or walk away. That's not the case here.