“A train, unless it has frequent stops, is of NO ECONOMIC USE TO ANYONE except those at either end.”
That’s profoundly narrow minded. In the case of the LA-Las Vegas HSR if you live in Barstow the economic impact of the train is found in reduced traffic and reduced costs associated with emergency services required for all of that traffic. Of course, there’s also a negative impact if HSR is successful and then businesses that depend on traffic jams and collisions and etc. along that corridor see their incomes impacted by the reduction in carnage along the LA-LV corridor.
Also, anything that ships by rail to a distribution point results in lower costs when it is eventually trucked to its final destination. You inevitably have things in your home that were shipped to you by intermodal shipping.
One of the reasons trains went out of service as a way of moving people is they just can't compete with automobiles and planes.
If the train doesn’t stop there then you also have the reduced revenue of people stopping for gas or food. So very minor reduced costs (most of which is actually federal highway money anyway) and reduced area revenues as the train flies by. Except of course people won’t actually be riding the train because it will be too expensive and on an inconvenient schedule. So basically you get what you have now and a train that flies by empty a few times a day.