Can Republicans halt high-speed funding?

Any progress has been hampered by a range of problems including fiscal mismanagement, inflation, environmental issues, route controversies, the collapse of private funding (if it was ever in the cards in the first place), legal roadblocks and countless changes to priorities and specifications too numerous to mention.

The Peninsula’s rail corridor has been beneficiary of some of the taxpayers’ largesse thrown at the fast train project as electrification of the line proceeds.

The aim, if it ever comes to pass, is to have both Caltrain and high-speed rail use the same tracks. That decision came about as a compromise in the wake of outcries over proposals by high-speed backers to have a four-track system along the Peninsula that could well have included an extensive system of viaducts, berms and other significant grade separations that would have divided communities.

As for the rest of the current construction, most of it in the Central Valley, work continues to drag on. Money (or the lack of it), as always, is a primary concern.

Which brings up a key point: What happens if Republicans take over the House of Representatives? As of Tuesday morning, they were very close to doing so. Would they then pull the plug on this runaway fiscal nightmare? One can only hope.

QUENTIN KOPP’S MEA CULPA: Still on the subject of high-speed rail and its well-documented failings for a moment, it was revealing to read Quentin Kopp’s mea culpa in these pages last week.

A one-time enthusiastic promoter of the project, the former state senator and San Mateo County judge admitted that his “personal dream has vanished.”

He lobbied hard for the 2008 passage of the original funding package. He then served as a gung-ho top honcho governing the early days of the high-speed effort.

However, as plans changed and money was diverted to the Peninsula’s commuter rail route, Kopp became disenchanted and wound up becoming an outspoken critic of key aspects of, and alterations to, what he had once touted.

He was especially adamant that HSR should have its own dedicated tracks throughout the system, including along the Peninsula and into Silicon Valley.

His recent scathing commentary was a stark U-turn from those optimistic days and nights back in the late 2000s. Kopp ended his litany of complaints about the project’s myriad miscues, missed deadlines and bloated budgets by writing, “I am complicit.”

That admission had to be very tough to pen.

SAN MATEO TO ROHNERT PARK: Let’s pause for a moment and contemplate the historic scope of Tom Brady’s professional football career.

At the advanced athletic age of 45, he’s been a quarterback in the National Football League since 2000, 23 seasons (nearly a full generation), marked by highs (seven Super Bowl championship rings) and lows (serious injuries, brutal playoff losses, a looming divorce).

Not long ago, he reached a stunning milestone: 100,000 yards passing. To place that figure in some perspective, that works out to 57 miles worth of footballs thrown and caught by teammates while being chased, hit, knocked down, tackled and generally mistreated by dedicated foes.

That’s the distance between Brady’s San Mateo hometown north all the way to Rohnert Park in Sonoma County.

BETTY COOKSON PASSES AT 99: The death of Betty Cookson last month deserves a mention. She was a 23-time tennis champion as she competed through her adulthood. She left a significant legacy here.

She was a key organizing figure at the Peninsula Tennis Club in Burlingame that hosted the U.S. Tennis Association’s prestigious National Junior Hardcourt Championships for decades. She was a member of the USTA NorCal Hall of Fame.

A native of Sutter Creek, she is survived by three adult children, nine grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren. She was 99.

You can get in touch with John Horgan by email at johnhorganmedia@gmail.com.