American High Speed Rail is a Terrible Idea

[squeegee]

This OP is in large part a rewriting/updating of a Cato Institute paper from 2009.

@That paper

According to the Department of Energy, the average Amtrak train uses about 2,700 British thermal units (BTUs) of energy per passenger mile. This is a little better than cars (about 3,400 BTUs per passenger mile) or airplanes (about 3,300 BTUs per passenger mile).
[…]
This means, over the lifetime of an investment in moderate‐​speed trains, the trains won’t save any energy at all. In fact, to achieve higher speeds, moderate‐​speed trains will require even more energy than conventional trains and probably much more than the average car or airplane 10 or 20 years from now.

I’m impressed Amtrack improved from from 2700 to 1535 BTU per passenger mile! I’m wondering what changed or who is wrong here.

It goes on to trash the California project in similar fashion. I agree with Sam’s trashing, it’s a boondoggle.