my take on it is that it is about time that we upgrade the ground transportation infrastructure other then roads and this shit costs $$$ because nothing worthwhile is CHEAP....so in the event of another "national emergency" this would be able to take thousands of people out of the city centers and elevate the mass exodus from the interstates as well as be able to avert another post 9/11 shutdown of travel throughout the country....FAA shuts down the skies....DOT doesn’t need to shut down rail travel.....some business as usual would be better then utter total gridlock!

I know for a fact that it has helped in local areas that don’t have high speed rail but have commuter rail…..balt/wash/nort va region has commuter rail as well as three counties in So Florida….it helps those without vehicles and supports getting more cars off the roads….