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ed, Let me throw this out at you: Is it necessarily the best move to simply rebuild an ex-railroad grade, or would it make more sense to utilize that old grade for a grander purpose? In my extremist right wing conspiracy view of things, I do not believe it is necessarily optimal to build a toll railroad concept as an adjunct of the 4'81/2" / 39 ton per axle / knuckle coupler / air brake / speed constrained railroad system we have now. If our nation was to embark on such a project with similarities to the Interstate Highway System, why not make it a (inclusive of but not limited to or dependent upon): 1. Wide gauge? 2. HSR? 3. 25 to 33 ton per axle? 4. ECP required? 5. Bi-modal based? 6. other???? If any or all of the above are included, do old railroad ROW's make the best ROW's for an Interstate Rail System? Your Middle American ex-RR ROW's might be straight as an arrow, but out West some parts of that Milwaukee ROW simply would not fit into a modernized vision of a toll railway. And if governments are the lead entities for constructing new toll railways, they might be better off using the ol' eminent domain high speed highway ROW's with wide sweeping curves and no cross traffic rather than curving ground level ex-RR grades.
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