Where do I start?
95 miles for HSR between NYC and Philadelphia is a joke. Look at the math.
HSR at an average 154 MPH = 37 minutes. (The articles numbers, not mine)
Standard train at an average 100 MPH = 58 minutes.
Are 21 minutes worth the extra billions that would be paid for HSR?
The billion dollar Acela now does the trip in 70 minutes running on unimproved track shared with slower trains. $100 says if you put Acela on dedicated rails you would get the trip down to 45 minutes at a substantial savings compared to new HSR.
The Bay area is just now finding out how they lowered the prcie tag on Californias HSR project. They shifted the burden to the local cities and towns. Have fun playing with your trains.
The California HSR plan is far from the RIGHT PLAN AT THE RIGHT TIME. They ignorantly trumpet - The blended approach to building the system, which leverages existing track on the Peninsula and in the Los Angeles Basin. - -
That is the same trap they fell into in the northeast corridor when they setup Acela. That plan has turned out to be a costly failure of an experiment. The conventional train between Boston and NYC does it in just 18 minutes less than Acela. Without dedicated tracks HSR is doomed to be a joke in the US.
