Another one to watch in the HSR area is Italy. They decided a couple of years ago to privatize the HSR operation -- just the HSR *operation* and not the general freight/passenger service and the rail lines themselves which are a public service/utility and are already at a fairly high (typical European) standard. They're essentially outsourcing the premium service. Anyway, saw this in Trains: the winner (backed by the French) spent about $1B on trainsets upgrades and staffing and is just starting operation on the mainline (Naples-Rome-someplace in the North). They plan to make money while paying rent to the State Railway. Might be interesting ... parallel sort of to the FEC idea.

Incidentally, per mapcrow.com it's about 410 miles straight line from Naples to Milan (a reasonable target in the North) - not too much different from SF-LA - but of course they have a couple of good-sized cities in between (Rome & Florence, for instance) for on-line traffic (good!) and some terrain so say 500 miles on the ground -- not much different from the planned CAHSR line actually. Chez Google the most direct driving distance from Miami to Orlando (probably the Turnpike) is about half that -- 233 miles. Sounds like FEC would be a bit longer due to the need for a branch off their main line to reach Orlando but with no need for rest and gas stops you wouldn't need much more than 100-110 mph for the train to get there first.