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sorry for getting political but wouldn't it be wiser to re-structure the states in a more geographically sound manner to undermine or minimise the downsides of HSR in north america (those downsides being that HSR does not make sense for north american geography, as states that could benefit from it are poor) kind of like gerrymandering
Also ond of the main costs and limitations of HSR is the purchasing of land in high density cities so giving the government the right to seize land like france and china did would be a huge help to the cause, ethics asides of course.
besides, the USA already has developed high speed transportation in the form of the UTACV as part of the high speed ground transportation act of 1965 which has the benefit of a relatively low cost for the ground infrastructure (another economic limitation to hsr)
