Have you looked at the cost?
Even if the passengers were all in pods that seamlessly moved from one train to the other in under a minute the simple cost to setup and maintain this effort cannot be justified by the gains.
And when will people realize that 300 mph trains will never compete with planes doing 550 mph? Even with a theoretical high-speed transfer of riders from one train to another they will never be able to compete. Trains need to compete with cars.
At 100 mph an affordable to buy and maintain express train can offer much faster service than a person driving their car from Boston to DC. With a top operational speed of 80 mph the current Acela HSR runs hours behind the travel times of steam trains in the 1940s. A billion dollar 150 mph train wasted because the express rails do not exist.
And no one wants to talk about the enormous amounts of energy used to move these trains at 200+ mph. The per passenger carbon footprint on HSR is insane.
I also do not see how a PHD in chemistry makes you qualified to discuss HSR. I have been researching HSR for over 30 years. I have a deeper knowledge of the history of the American railroad system than most of the morons working for Amtrak. I can say for certain that the people who gloss over these facts about HSR proposals are idiots.
