re: #161 garhighway

It would probably cost upwards of $250 billion, because as you say they would need to establish entirely new ROW.

That’s why you’ve got proposals for HSR in places like the central valley in CA, CA to Vegas, and Tampa/Orlando, because the acquisition costs for dedicated HSR is so much less.

If Amtrak improved its power supply/support/signaling, and eliminated the bottlenecks outside Baltimore and the Portal Bridge/Hudson River tunnel, travel times could be reduced to make the trip between DC and Boston much more competitive with air travel, and could allow for a critical mass to permanently shift travel plans.

Heck, HSR would be viable for NYC to Albany because the row could follow the NYS Thruway but that hasn’t received nearly the funding or attention it deserves even though there’s enough traffic to justify that routing.