But the Tampa end is well-designed, and Tampa is stepping up to the plate to improve its local services. It should be good for Tampa!

Maybe, maybe not. The real upshot of SEHSR is that it will relieve the Carolinian of overcrowding when it comes to daytime Charlotte-D.C. travel. Based on my understanding, some of the SEHSR trains will actually serve as express trains in NC and VA, skipping smaller cities.

Under this scenario, Charlotte, Greensboro, Durham, Cary, and Raleigh would be the only stops served along the Piedmont Corridor. Since the main SE line and the Carolinian diverge in Raleigh, passengers traveling to or from the five aforementioned cities would be diverted off #79 and #80 and unto either Piedmont or Express trains if they need to travel locally or to Petersburg and points north. As a result, the Carolinian would be able to add space for not only NEC-bound passengers, but for eastern NC travelers as well.

But the question is a good one. In fact, most of the other applications were for “better Amtrak:” more trains, better time-keeping, faster, but along existing Amtrak routes (perhaps with slight modification). Upgrade existing track to support higher speeds (but not above 110 mph, which is the fastest existing Amtrak diesel locomotives can go), add more trackage within the existing right of way so more trains can fit and faster passenger trains can pass slower freights and close the most dangerous at-grade crossings. This is massively cheaper than 150mph+ in dedicated RoW. For less than FRA is likely to give Florida for 85 miles of genuine HSR, FRA could fund all of Wisconsin’s Madison-Milwaukee-Chicago, Michigan’s Chicago-Detroit and Illinois’s Chicago-St. Louis as well as Illinois’s proposal to grade-separate a major passenger route from a heavy freight route within Chicago. When “Southeastern High Speed Rail” (which is actually just Virgina and North Carolina; South Carolina and Georgia aren’t playing) was being defined, they went for better Amtrak because, in the words of the then head of NCDOT, “We get 90% of the functionality for 10% of the cost.” The total cost, as defined in the HSIPR applications, for Washington-Richmond-Raleigh-Charlotte, about 500 miles, is $6.5B, eminently fundable. The tradeoff, wwhat they lose, is that people going from one end to the other, between Charlotte and Washington, will have a five and a half to six hour ride. USAir, when it actually manages to take off, will be faster and probably cheaper. But there are few potential riders end-to-end. Most riders from Charlotte are going to the Triad or Triangle; most riders from the Triangle are going to the Triad, Charlotte or Richmond; most riders from Richmond are going to Washington or Raleigh. Charlotte-Greensboro will be about an hour, Charlotte-Raleigh or Raleigh-Richmond, two hours, Washington-Richmond, a bit over 90 minutes. These are acceptable numbers.

So why is California going with the expensive option? It has a different ridership profile. Most potential riders are traveling between Northern and Southern California. Riders from Los Angeles are going to San Francisco, not Bakersfield. Riders from San Francisco are going to Los Angeles, not Stockton. And six hours SF-LA won’t cut it.

The US is large, it contains multitudes. One size does not fit all. There are at least two ways of getting to faster rail service. There is a lot of debate between the partisans of each. One may hope that FRA will not take sides.

For comparison, census figures estimate 1.34 million person trips a year between Oklahoma City and Tulsa and .88 million between Orlando and Tampa. Granted Florida has Disney and that census number wouldn’t include MCO airport-Disney.

Not saying one is better than the other, just providing context.

They have to choose between the applications they have, not the applications they might wish to have. For actual 150mph+ HSR, there were only the two states applying: CA and FL. The CA applications didn’t actually result in complete operational lines and the one that came closest, LA-Anaheim, is only 30 miles long. And none of the CA applications had their NEPA work complete. The FL application is three times the length of LA-Anaheim, can turn dirt as soon as it gets money and will actually result in running trains by 2014. It might not be perfect, but it’s better than the alternatives.

Since the announcement is being made in FL, one can assume that CA gets less than FL, which is not good news for CHSRA.