[floor23]

HSR would be a complete waste of money, it would be better to use that money to develop local public transit systems. It would seem weird that we would invest in HSR when we don't even have the culture of using public transit at the local level in most cities. Maybe in 100 years when the US has a population of 450-500 million would this even be feasible.

USA doesn't have the population density to support HSR outside of the Northeast. Even in the EU where the population density is much higher, people still prefer air travel over taking the train. Japan and China have much higher population densities and in China's case they also have an additional 1 billion people compared to the US. Lets also not forget that these countries with HSR, they already owned the ROW, something the US doesn't have. Eminent Domain=you have to pay market price, it would cost tens of billions or maybe even near a hundred billion just to have all the land acquired for the ROW.

Also I find it kind of funny in that video that they show a trip between NYC and SF taking 20 hours, when a flight between the those 2 cities would take only 6-7 hours. I could fly from Honolulu to NYC in less time. Considering people are willing spend thousands extra every year just to save 10-15 min on their daily commute by driving over taking transit, I'd be have assume people would be willing to spend an extra $100 to save hours on their trip between cities.

A HSR project as depicted in the video would cost well over $1+ trillion and probably would only generate a slight increase in ridership. People can claim its the US land use regulations or government incompetence, but the most expensive costs would come from building out west where the terrain is mountainous. Planes don't have to acquire ROW, trains do. I'd rather all our major cities have 15+ metro lines as opposed to an expensive underused HSR system.

This is a perfect case of "putting the cart before the horse". Even if Democrats control the House, Senate, and White House you would never find enough votes to push a project of this magnitude through. In 100-200 years maybe its feasible, but we're a long way from HSR in the US.