Note BTW: the acceleration rule-of-thumb numbers I gave are assuming distributed traction. TGV-style trains with tractor heads should be slower, see the current top speed example. (That train is allowed a top speed of 320 km/h = 200 mph on 40 km, 300 km/h = 183 mph on the rest of the 289.6 km relation, except for the Avignon bifurcation.) *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Because of the Bay, there is little downside and plenty of upside running as Express rail from San Jose to Oakland at the end of a HSR corridor to San Jose, especially if the final station is an interchange with the local rail over the Golden Gate.
Separate lines to Orlando and to Tampa down the length of the state is probably not a starter, so if I redrew the second map right now, I would draw the map assuming Tampa/Orlando/Jacksonville and Miami/Orlando/Jacksonville are two distinct services sharing the same Orlando/Jacksonville corridor.
But this map is not drawn on the assumption that you can buy a HSR ticket between, say, LA and Riverside. Short segments are included based on the additional trips they offer in the bracket.
And it is most definitely not a network planning map, since the broader idea that it is addressing is setting up an accounts-based system to support interurban trips of 1:30 to 3:00, with a range of types of projects eligible. HSR would be only one of those types of projects ... both Express rail and regular passenger rail would also be eligible. I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
Ah, that would have been sweet, 30 minutes into Union Station. "It's the statue, man, The Statue."
