Let’s say an imaginary version of this rapid rail finally occurred.
On day one...things start to get noticed. For this 380 mile episode....it’s roughly three hours by high-speed rail, while it’s still 75 minutes by airline. Right off the bat, you lose interest by a quarter of the population.
Then you advertise the fares (something nobody will discuss today). Round-trip between the two cities would have to run at least $250. Airfare is $215 for the cheapest possible ticket while the average price is near $300 for evening flights. You won’t save much, so it’d wipe out another quarter of the folks.
Then you get to the all-important question....where do you park? Some idiot will build a massive parking garage near both ends of the railway and charge $26 a day. So, you figure out the cost of driving over there and parking for three days.
The only place in America where it might make financial sense....is DC to New York. Otherwise, it’s wasted money and will never return on it’s investment.
I would argue with you on several points (while agreeing with you that this bullet train is a bad egg).
You’re talking fares of $250. It’ll probably be somewhat cheaper, because the government has a penchant for subsidizing fares. All the buslines and trains around here are two-thirds subsidized, with the farebox only covering one-third of actual costs. We taxpayers take a constant daily hit in taxes to subsidize operations beyond the costs of building it. (People gripe about paying $2 for the Muni busfare in SF, when actual costs should be $6 a ride.)
As for parking, political idiots are doing everything to discourage parking at bus and train stops. A lot of that goes on here, with neighborhood permits required for parking excluding commuters, to no garages permitted or to jacking up parking fees for garages that were built at some stations (as you indicated, high garage fees). The trains don’t go to where people are, so you lose customers who can’t easily get there to the stations.
As for DC to New York, don’t they already have trains? I haven’t used them on that route, but have from Philadelphia via Trenton, New Jersey to New York. I thought they were very efficient although crowded. I drove from Philadelphia to DC and the drive was easy, I imagine it isn’t too bad from DC to New York.
All in all, I think the need for high-speed trains is overblown, and would benefit very few people while hurting taxpayers who don’t use it.