Another writer has an interesting idea:

[www.xconomy.com]

He also points out that even if Musk is lowballing the cost by an order of magnitude, it still comes out just a tad more than what HSR is projecting now.

Of course, he's comparing a line that does what the original HSR concept was (LA-SF area, no stops, no intermediate traffic, just one line) to one that's trying to be part of a transportation network. Which a judge just said isn't what the proposition said so they can't spend the startup money.

I do like the prize idea ... $10B would be easily within the fundraising capability of a few of the big spenders, and would be about 10% of the potential total cost (you do 10% down on your house, right?).