I don't see any advantage non-parallel routes would offer, but the real substance of my statement was that there should be the opportunity to use a supplemental system to access the towns that should be overlooked as stops. The only requirement would be that the two systems be adjacent at places where an appropriate HSR stop is made. The two systems could diverge at places or remain parallel, but you need another system to provide all of the stops that are going to be requested by cities that lie between. I believe the main reason that parallel is better is that it makes maximum utilization of land acquisition. Orthogonal access lines from medium density urban areas also make sense.