With funds drying up, bullet train inches along

California’s high-speed rail project looks more and more like an uphill climb, considering the economy and the changed political calculus. A status update in today’s Wall Street Journal sums up the challenge: the GOP has already rescinded $400 million of the $10.5 billion Congress approved in 2009 and there’s no money expected to get through the GOP-controlled House this fiscal year, which started 17 days ago. The state will “update” the plan Nov. 1.