My fear is that, while the older parts of it are falling apart in disuse, we will continue building new stretches of this train to nowhere.
You raise an excellent point.
I am a long-distance train commuter. I ride a train in to downtown LA for 70 minutes each way, every weekday. Although a few stretches of the track allow us to go 70mph, most of the track is graded (or whatever the term is) so as to allow only a rambling 25-30mph.
I ask about this, and I am told there is no money to upgrade the tracks.
Why is an entirely superfluous, dangerous $200++ HSR project given higher priority in this whackadoo state than upgrading existing roads and (outdated) rails?