One of the things holding back speeds with the "conventional" passenger equipment we have now (which is capable of - and used at on non-BNSF parts of the Surfliner route - 90mph or even a bit over 100 by design) is track sharing with freight RRs. Would it not be reasonable to use the HSR money (which I don't think will reach the $50B needed for the whole LA/SF run for a long time, let alone the $100B+ needed to make a real system out of it) to make incremental improvements such as additional or rerouted track that allows conventional trains to run faster. Wouldn't be "200 mph HSR" Right Now but if designed right could eventually be used by it, and in the meantime we would get real passenger service improvements. Of course, 1A probably has the "200 mph HSR" language in it so incrementalism is probably not practical.