Last fall, California voters approved Proposition 1A, authorizing $10 billion in bonds to start building high speed rail between San Francisco and Los Angeles. But you have to wonder if this project will ever be built because many Californians will balk at having high speed trains near their houses and open spaces.

The city council of Palo Alto just approved a plan to hire engineering consultants to look out for the city’s best interest. The Mercury News explains that “Many in Palo Alto and neighboring cities are pushing for the trains to run underground while fearing that the rail authority will instead run them above-ground to save money.”

Yeah, no kidding? Of course they want to run high speed trains above ground. It get really expensive, really quick to build large tunnels. For example, the 31 mile tunnel between France and the U.K. cost over $16 billion in 2009 dollars (UK£ 4650 in 1985 prices–$7,871 billion with today’s exchange rate).

Putting high speed rail underground in the San Francisco area will make it prohibitively expensive and you could see the people of Palo Alto and similar areas revolting against above ground rail.