In his 2012 State of the State address, the governor said his administration was within weeks of releasing a new business plan "that will enable us to begin initial construction before the year is out."

Then, last summer, Brown narrowly won lawmaker approval to sell billions of dollars in state bonds.  High-speed rail backers had warned the project would lose its federal funds if that vote failed and construction were delayed.

Half a year later, there's a new timeline.  "You always have to allow a little bit of time for just process, unfortunately.  But we're on the schedule that we laid out in our Business Plan last spring to move forward and be under way this summer," says High-Speed Rail Authority CEO Jeff Morales.

Morales says he doesn't expect any more delays.  But the project does face some hurdles.  The Authority needs to buy the land it wants to build track on and still has several unresolved lawsuits.