I feel like this sort of thing just proves that the problem with building high speed rail in the US is cultural[1] and political[2] not technical or economic.
[1] Americans have been carefully propagandized to believe that governments can't do anything right. And cars represent manhood and freedom.
[2] For instance Ubber and Lift are funding the same anti public transportation organizations the Koch brother(s) were.
Americans have been carefully propagandized to believe that governments can't do anything right
Then the people decide to give the government a chance, pass a proposition asking for rail, and then the government completely screws it up. Terrible route, corrupt, massively over budget, graft, and effectively cancelled after a decade of waste and work. So now even progressive people in progressive California are thinking the government can't so anything right, not because of propaganda, but because they see the failure.
[1] Americans have been carefully propagandized to believe that governments can't do anything right. And cars represent manhood and freedom.
[2] For instance Ubber and Lift are funding the same anti public transportation organizations the Koch brother(s) were.