re: #317 Irish Rose

Interesting.

My first instinct is always free market. That railways already have a nationwide network of right of ways to work with, and if money were to be made they’d be working on high speed rail.

Stepping by from first instinct:
My question would be who would be served? Major markets already have air travel, some lots of it. There are probably 20 daily flights Seattle to LA. I make day business trips to San Jose, it’s a long day but it works. What’s the cost / benefit to high speed rail vs. other forms already in place? What would be additional debt load? To make it self sustaining what would fares be? Would those fares be competitive in the market? What’s lost by not having high speed rail?

IMHO, when those questions start getting answered, the value and benefit wouldn’t justify high speed rail.