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[quote user="Flashwave"] Sam: What short distance are you seeing? Aside from AmtkCali, and NEC, most all of the US is too spread out for short dense corridors. [/quote]There are a number of potential passenger rail corridors in the U.S. in addition to the corridors that you cite.  None of them, as far as I know, have the population density of the NEC, which is necessary to justify passenger rail, but some of them may get there in the next decade or so.  It is important to remember that a railway train is designed to move large numbers of people. Otherwise, they don't have a prayer of covering their operating costs, which should be a requirement for any passenger rail system.  This is why I believe that they are only justified in relatively short, high density corridors.  And then only if they can run over existing or upgraded existing rights of way. In Texas, with which I am most familiar, potential corridors are Dallas to Houston, Houston to Galveston, Houston to San Antonio, Fort Worth to Austin and San Antonio, and Austin to San Antonio.  In each case the distance is roughly 200 to 250 miles, except for the Austin to San Antonio (ASA) and Houston to Galveston corridors.The most likely next corridor in Texas is the ASA, followed by the Houston to Galveston corridor.  Unfortunately, a recently released study by TxDOT threw cold water on the ASA.  Making it feasible would require a freight train by-pass from just north of Austin to just east of San Antonio to permit the implementation of the ASA along the current UP route.  The estimated cost is $2.4 billion to build the bypass, plus another $600 million to upgrade the UP for corridor passenger service.  This totals $3 billion.  TxDOT further estimated that these improvements would generate $1.4 billion in benefits over 20 years.  One does not have to be much a financier to know that this is a negative return.    The only operational Texas corridor is the Trinity Railway Express (TRE) that runs from Dallas to Fort Worth.  The TRE operates nearly 50 trains a day, and it carries approximately 8,800 riders a day.  Actually, it carries approximately 4,400 people, since most of the riders commute into Dallas or Fort Worth in the morning and commute home in the evening.  In 2006, when the ridership and the number of trains was considerably less than today, TRE passengers received an average subsidy of $6.44 per trip.  Subsequently, DART and the "T", which own the TRE, rolled the TRE subsidy into their over all subsidy numbers.  I suspect they were embarrassed at the per passenger subsidy required to float the TRE.  Transit systems, including commuter rail, in Texas get from 10 to 18 per cent of their revenues from the fare box.  The remainder is made up from sales tax levies collected in the cities served by the transit and commuter rail systems.  These taxes, however, are not enough to cover the construction costs for the light and commuter rail systems.  Accordingly, most of the Texas cities with rail systems did what many Texans are loath to do.  They turned to the federal government a significant portion of the construction money.  Without it light rail and commuter rail in most Texas communities would not be possible.
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