Wouldn’t high-speed rail access to all of those people pretty much kill the concept of high-speed due to the number of stops it would need?
With so many people living in suburbs or otherwise away from downtown, how does having to get to and from downtown make it easier?
"High speed rail" is about as realistic as "shovel ready jobs" and "green jobs" saving the economy. As for the chinese building "newer airports"--lol, what else? China is also building "ghost cities" to keep their burgeoning masses busy and under some semblance of control. Not a great model for the US to follow in the 21st century.