While high speed rail would be great if it could be delivered on time and under budget that is never going to happen.
Why not nationalize the existing rail lines and invest those dollars into increasing their capacity (so that passenger lines are not second class to freight traffic). Remove the passenger monopoly from Amtrak and let market forces have at it, e.g., Virgin Rail or similar.
This was tried in the UK. It resulted in ballooning ticket prices, underinvestment in infrastructure, ridiculously confusing pricing (this is a competitive advantage in oligopolies) and lots of attempts to capitalize on the confusion by issuing fines when the obscure rules caused by the confusing pricing were broken.
Market forces didn't work as predicted because, oddly enough, the London-Edinburgh rail operator doesn't feel much competitive pressure from the London-Bristol route.
It was all an exercise in transferring state assets into private hands at a knock down price so that they could be milked for profits. In that respect it was a resounding success.
My proposal was for taking the existing rail lines, which had government subsidies, and making them a commons and improving them so that all players had better service.
The rails themselves become owned by the public and are improved so that more freight and more passenger traffic can utilize it.
As it stands now, passenger traffic here takes a back seat to freight and it makes traveling by rail on the west coast fit only for tourists with plenty of time on their hands.
Why not nationalize the existing rail lines and invest those dollars into increasing their capacity (so that passenger lines are not second class to freight traffic). Remove the passenger monopoly from Amtrak and let market forces have at it, e.g., Virgin Rail or similar.