Dear stupid DUmmie retards, consider population density. The only places in the US that have population densities comparable to the places you're talking about are the Northeast Corridor, Coastal Southern California, and parts of peninsular Florida. Guess what, there are large public transit nets in places that have the population density to support it. What does NOT make sense is to build supertrain lines across hundreds of miles of smaller cities, towns, farmland, deserts, and mountains to connect any two of hundreds of major metro areas, such as connecting Philly or NYC to the northern Ohio cities and Chicago, or Frisco or LA to Las Vegas.