I don't know enough about the proposed California project to respond knowledgeably to the opinion piece. However, I have read plenty of pieces written by Randal O’Toole, Wendell Cox and others associated with the Reason Foundation, Cato Institute, Heritage Foundation, Cascade Policy Institute and other libertarian/conservative authors and think tanks criticizing public transit and rail projects. In criticizing the costs of such projects, the true costs of roads are never fully considered. These include injuries and deaths incurred in traffic accidents, environmental damage and lost tax revenues to urban areas when vast swaths of land are cleared for highways.

As a former resident of Albany, NY, I was a rode Amtrak’s Empire Service trains many times to and from New York. These trains were always well-patronized because they traveled at decent speeds and the frequency was high. This experience leads me to believe that while promoters of high-speed trains put forth overly optimistic ridership projections, I feel that the critics are overly pessimistic in claiming that very few people will ride the trains.