[William of Barsoom]

The insanely over-priced and over-budget Cal Rail had no chance of ever being anything like successful.
Newsome was right to pull the plug.

BUT!

Rail, itself, is not a bad idea. It needs sane engineering, private corporate management, and use the existing rail network. PRIVATIZE passenger service.

For under 500 miles or so, rail can be faster than flying — with all the inefficient overhead in time wasted that flying entails.

Central city to central city, with no cabs, limos, or long distances to big airports can be faster or equal without all the “security” and stupidity that today’s Flying Greyhound Busses with wings offer.

Rail WILL be attractive once again — in time, but only as a business for profit.

[luv2ski]

I know you mention privatizing but that can’t be stressed enough. Amtrak is a unionized mess. It is run poorly (frequently late) and the service is generally shoddy. Even the lounges for passengers in terminals where there is high demand (like DC’s Unions station and Penn Station in NY) are throw backs to the 1950s. Good luck getting the unions out of train travel. They are deeply entrenched and are, naturally, the main problem with it.

[Fraxinus]

Several parts you have wrong. Passengers and freight have such different demands, they actually do better the less overlap there is between the systems. There is a much higher marginal advantage to higher speed for passengers than for freight. Most freight clients actually use the rail cars as storage and/or can accept pick up and delivery in windows of 8+ hours of schedule.

Central city to central city, with no cabs, limos, or long distances to big airports can be faster or equal without all the “security” and stupidity that today’s Flying Greyhound Busses with wings offer.

I would consider the trip to and from the airport an approximate wash for most travelers compared to the trip to and from the train station. Less security theater resulting in less time spent in station is a big plus on those shorter trips though. More comfortable seating should be a big selling point for people considering traveling by train.

[Ouderkirk]

High speed rail MUST be elevated. You cannot have Ma & Pa Kettle getting liquefied by a train doing 250mph on and “at grade road crossing”.

That is the issue, and will drive the costs up.