A Willie Green Memorial Choo-choo Ping.
“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.