Getting the government, and taxpayer subsidies, out of HSR and allowing privately owned HSR running on dedicated tracks.
The new Italian HSR trains are a departure from current HSR train designs. They use a propulsion model similar to the NYC subway system where the drive components are dispersed among the trains cars instead of being located in one large locomotive pushing or pulling the train.
The design offers better traction on grades and in wet weather, but more importantly it allows for a more efficient train design leading to a higher passenger capacity on a train the same size as current TVGs. Another efficiency of the design are the permanent-magnet motors that consume less power and have a higher power to weight ratio than the asynchronous motors used by current trains.
The compact size of these motors not only allows them to be placed in the train cars, but have an added benefit of being quieter than current HSR designs. Europe does not have as bad a NIMBY problem as the US does, but this design should be looked at by all US HSR proponents as a way to manage the inevitable NIMBY fights that will come up over noise.
Lower power use, increased passenger capacity and dedicated rails are keys to making HSR cost effective to run without taxpayer subsidies. There is no reason why California should fail to build their HSR system as anything less than a state of the art system with built in operational cost efficiency.
http://www.raileurope.com/blog/4107-new-italian-high-speed-trainsOn a side note. The propulsion layout of the new Italian trains provides better traction and would be a safer design for mountains than Chinas conventional layout ICE train.
