If High speed rail would make a profit they would be people lining up to bid on the private to invest in a private company.
Good point. The pols would be getting campaign contributions for
bidders trying to buy, er, sway the pols.
Instead, they've come up with this scheme to get the taxpayer to fun
union dem contributions, not to mention providing jobs for their
ne'er-do-well offspring and in-laws.
In Texas where private investors wanted to build high speed rail they found themselves the target of an extensive anti-rail PR and legal campaign funded by Southwest Airlines.
So long as SWA is allowed to act to protect their near and growing monopoly on trips of 100-500 miles then high speed rail will continue to scare away private investors.
I suppose one solution would be convincing SWA to run the high speed rail projects.