SACRAMENTO, Calif. — In the second phase of a court challenge filed in 2011, attorneys for a group of Central Valley farmers will argue in Sacramento County Superior Court that the state can no longer assure Californians of the claims made in 2008, KPCC reports.

Voters were told the nation's first high-speed trains would whisk travelers from San Francisco to Los Angeles in two hours and 40 minutes and that the system would operate without a government subsidy.

Critics argue that the project, which has been beset by legal and financial hurdles, can't possibly make those times and costs, largely because of decisions made to accommodate political considerations. Those include using a blended system that shares track with other rail lines in some parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, starting the rail system in the Central Valley and the need to tunnel through the Tehachapi Mountains. For the full story, click here.