High speed rail would be a joke in the U.S. It's feasible elsewhere but not here. I don't know one single person who would use the rail if it was built...
I've used rail over the years. Not high speed but some of my experience is still relevant.
When I was in the Navvy I used to take the train from Great Lakes NTC to Chicago, walk over to the South Shore line and take that to the closest stop to where I grew up. A 6 hour trip to go 80 miles. 2 hours by car, less if you sped and boy do they speed on the highways around Chicago. Part of the issue was that the train stopped at every dipshit town along both lines, not an issues (theoretically) with high speed rail, but the other and relevant part follows. The first train out of the base I could catch left an hour after I got off work, the train before that left 15 minutes before I got off work. Then, when I finally got to Chicago made it to the South Shore terminal, I had to wait 2 hours for the next train home, missed the prior by less than 10 minutes. So three hours of sitting around waiting for a train.
When I was in San Diego, they have a "trolley", it's an electric train. IF you lied near a stop and if you worked near a stop you could commute, as long as you were willing to bend your schedule to the train's. Again, more wait time at the station, not as bad as the Chicago example though, more scheduled trains in San Diego.
Trains are great, if you are cargo or like being treated like cargo. Just about any other option is more convenient thought. Except planes, I'd rather take the Super Chief than fly, if I could.
