re: Can high speed rail work in the United States?

Not a chance if we're talking from coast-to-coast. The high speed rail that is happening here in Fresno is a freaking mess in every way conceivable. We aren't even having to bother with trying to get it through the Sierra Nevadas or the Coastal Range that surround us to the east and west. The costs have ballooned out of control. Farmland, businesses, private property... all taken via eminent domain. It's bad. Again, the area they're building on now is basically flat and without natural barriers and it's still a trainwreck.

The best you can hope for is in specific corridors and even that will be a hard sell for a country with the car culture that we have. It is not economical for my family to go to anywhere in the state and end up having to get an uber to go to say a Dodgers game. The time savings will be minimal and I'll have to catch an uber when I get to Los Angeles. I can get to LA and back for about $75 right now and do so in my own time and how I want to go about doing it.