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Amtrak invested approximately $9.6 billion to upgrade the NEC to achieve a top speed of 150 mph.  Needless to say, this is well short of the $40 billion estimated cost of the California High Speed Railway Project. Amtrak charges an average of 68.5 cents per mile for a ticket on the Acela from New York to Washington.  The charge from New York to Philadelphia is approximately $1.16 per mile.  These fares cover the operating expenses of the Acela and contribute something to the fixed costs, but they fall well short of covering all the fixed costs. Presumably the high speed route from LAX to San Francisco will be between 415 and 464 miles, which is the current mileage from LAX to the Bay area via Bakersfield or the coastal route.  Let's say it will be 440 miles via the high speed line.   If the California High Speed Line charges the same rate per mile as Amtrak charges for the Acela - forget trying to recover the fixed costs, a ticket from LAX to San Francisco would cost $301.40.  If the higher rates where charged for shorter routes, the prices would be even steeper, as is the case for the Acela between New York and Philadelphia.   The airfare from LAX to San Francisco is $66.  The average flying time is 1 hour and 20 minutes.  There are 52 non stop flights a day from LAX to San Francisco excluding Southwest Airlines.  Southwest has another 12 flights a day with fares ranging from $49 to $130. If the high speed train has a top speed of 220 mph, the average will probably be in the neighborhood of 185 mph.  Thus, the train will take approximately 2 hours and 35 minutes to run from LAX to San Francisco.  So why would a business person, or anyone else for that matter, want to spend 2 hours and 35 minutes on a train, at a cost of $301.40, to get from LAX to San Francisco, when he can fly there in 1 hour and 20 minutes for an average fare of $66?  And save approximately $235 in the process. I have looked at the webpage for the California High Speed Rail Project.  Interestingly, these questions don't appear to have been addressed by the backers.  Perhaps you can answer them with supportable data.
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