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100 mph ain't high speed rail in my book. However, this speed is better than 30 mph. In my opinion we would be better off to spend $63 billion to build 7,000 miles of 150 mph tracks, rather than spend $38 billion upgrading 23,000 miles of tracks to 100 mph. Yes, our country is bigger than Europe, but that hasn't stopped Europe from expanding their high speed lines. They actually have a plan in place. And this is exactly what is wrong in America. High speed rail will work, all it needs is funding and a plan, similar to the interstate highway system. And yes, using current or even abandoned railroad lines and current interstate highway real estate for high speed rail will save lots of money. Flordia estimates double track high speed rail along current right of way at $ 9 million a mile, $12 million if electrified. Texas estimates that new right of way would lift this to $20 million a mile. So there is significant savings in using real estate already owned by the government. The technology exists. There is no reason not to build. Building high speed rail is not by any definition stretching the envelope. If the Europeans can do it, so can we. 7,000 miles of double track high speed rail could entail connecting the four major population areas of the northeast with the midwest, the southeast and southwest, plus California: a line on the west coast in California, from Philadelphia to Chicago, Washington DC to Miami. Chicago to Houston, Houston to Jacksonville, Chicago to Atlanta to Minneapolis, and to Denver, New York City to Toronto and Montreal. Every state east of the Mississippi except for 3 small New England states would have high speed rail, and many states west of the Mississippi would have high speed rail, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, California, and Minnesota. Every city with a metropolitan population of over 5 million would be included, and most of the cities of over a million in metropolitan population too.
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