This whole legal tussle makes sense only if you look at it in the larger historical context of road vs. rail. The highway lobby considers railroads as their natural enemy, ie. any expansion of railroads means less money for road construction. They are not amenable to discussion on this - the anti-rail attack machinery has been on robot control for 100 years.

And then the rail industry's pr image comes off as haughty and hostile. Just look at the Union Pacific's snotty attitude toward the high speed rail project. If the UP is going to force eminent domain just to get a decent right of way for our tgv why should the State spend a penny of taxpayers' money on trackage upgrades that just enrich the bottom line of privately owned railroads? At least the highways are in the public domain.