>>1965273>Atlanta, Nashville and Charlotte are all plenty big enough to support a HSR networkMaybe, you didn't really read anything in the last post. Sprawl is a huge problem for rail. It means stations and stops are likely to be inconvenient locations for locals. It doesn't really matter how fast your intercity rail connection is if getting to the station and waiting for a train is a huge pain in the ass (no railtards, the fact that people drive to the airport does not negate this point). Adding more stops can alleviate this somewhat, but consequently slows down your transit times.
>Plus those are some of the fastest growing cities in the country. They have been for several years.Atlanta's growth has been predominantly in its sprawling suburbs, and even that has cooled off somewhat since the recession in 2008. The City of Atlanta's actual population is barely 8% of its total metro area and none of its constituent cities are dense. Charlotte is a very low-density city by global standards.
Ultimately what this means is that HSR is competing for a modest slice of the market, trying to squeeze into a niche between convenient point-to-point car-based regional travel and long-distance air travel. This lets rail shills easily shift the goalposts around by describing this slice of this under-served market with great enthusiasm, cherry-picking downsides of the alternatives and ignoring the big picture, making it seems like any amount of investment will definitely pay off without ever producing plausible numbers to back it up.
