> 1. You want to get from SF to LA as fast as possible; This is a dumb goal, and a total misunderstanding of the whole point and benefit of a rail system. The

> 1. You want to get from SF to LA as fast as possible; This is a dumb goal, and a total misunderstanding of the whole point and benefit of a rail system. The real benefit of rail is that you can have stops and integrate the high speed rail with many other regional rails and local transport solution in order to build a sustainable practical transportation system for the whole state. We are not talking about 100s of stops, you take a few stop in a few places where you have 100'000s of people living. A system that doesn't just connect 2 things point by point but rahter all cities directly to the next closes large city and the next closes after that. HSR should be the backbone of a transportation system that enables as many people as possible to live without a car. Its far more important to prevent people from driving all those inside of California routes with their cars, then it is to prevent non-stop travel between SF-LA by cars or planes.