To play H2’s advocate for a moment, if LA can’t seem to get the financial and political backing to invest in electrification quickly, it is a potential way for LA to pull a “passenger train network” out of its ass in time for the 2028 Olympics…
It’s quieter and no emissions at the location of travel kind similar to CNG/LNG. (Some electricity face similar problems of not being zero emissions from generation)… but I do think it’s worth exploring for some minor applications.
Edit: to be clear, electric and battery trains are better technologies by miles and miles. Just that the oil and freight rail lobbyists are in California’s pocket for now so I’m just saying the best case scenario for Los Angeles given the powers that be and hold SoCal back