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Couldn't disagree more. HSR from NYC to Philly makes all the sense in the world. It's an embarrassment that travel between those two cities cannot be accomplished in under an hour today. The NEC through NJ is entirely grade separated from roads and it's pretty straight. It's a HSR dream. Just need a good tunnel to NYC and a better routing through North Philly, IMO.
NJ demands a stop or two for going through its territory so speeding up much more over a sort distance is pointless, just like Boston to Providence upgrades would do basically nothing because it's 4 stops in 42 miles and it already peaks at 155.
Obviously, indisputably, that Boston-DC corridor would easily be the most utilized and beneficial segment of a HSR network. The question would be whether its benefits over what is currently available are great enough to warrant the expense.
If not, Cali probably would be the ideal top choice to connect all four major metros. I believe it would be enough of an improvement over what is currently there.
Beyond that nothing is obvious to me. I could see connecting Chicago to MSP (via Milwaukee) particularly considering MSP's relatively strong economic and population growth, as well as decent transit network. Where the line goes on the other side of Chicago is anyone's guess. STL, Detroit, or curving through Indy and OH could all be useful.
Texas is going to continue growing gangbusters by all indications so Houston-Dallas would be tremendous. It would be nice to tie in Austin-San Antonio as well but the difficulty is whether it is worth the additional cost. To create a triangle would add 200% more distance to the initial segment. Making a t-connection would be the most effective for distance but I have no idea about the feasibility of actual ROW acquisition and whether the additional travel time would render it less useful. Depending on OKC's growth that could be a better extension.
Piedmont corridor with Atlanta-Charlotte-Raleigh is also tempting considering the growth in this region. It could also eventually connect through Richmond to the DC area.
For me personally, I would most benefit from a Jax-Miami connection. Obviously a T-extention incorporating Orlando-Tampa would be welcome. And if this can stretch up to Atlanta even better for me. But the key is JAX-MIA as I would easily utilize it once a month, perhaps more. I don't hate the drive currently, but it definitely eats into my productivity quite a bit. The only thing is, kinda like I was saying at the beginning of this post, the question is whether it is going to be worth the improvement over what is currently happening. And currently Brightline is constructing higher speed rail between Miami and Orlando, with a high probability of extension to Jax and Tampa by 2025 (unless the entire thing fails). So if this happens as planned, it probably wouldn't be worth the cost to build an entire HSR network from scratch just to shave 20% off the travel times.
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