Originally Posted by
Mr Grinch
No boys and girls, it's about Southwest Airlines and their lobbying power. They have been fighting HSR on their legacy route for a long, long time. SAT-HOU-LUV and AUS.
Yes, this is part of it. High speed rail isn't competing just with cars but also air transportation. So HSR costs sometimes offset a bunch of other things like airport expansion, and carbon emissions from airplanes which are less efficient, especially when they climb, then immediately descend as is common on short routes. This was a big part of the California HSR scenario. Some very high number of flights within the state are between the Bay Area and LA.