High Speed Rail in the US - $53 Billion? HA! More like 200 Billion

The US lead the rail revolution long before Europe - the first use of military trains was in the US Civil War - by the South.
Rails went EVERYWHERE because it was cheaper to get goods to people - even small towns - than by wagon.
The railway barons were consider "robber barons" that since they built the rails and locked down all the people to using just their system (especially out west, in the east there was LOTS of competition in the short hauls, but going any distance you had to use one of the top 15 rails and pay to move your goods. See the AH game "Rail Baron" to get a feel of how many railroads there REALLY were.) The government stepped in and started regulating it - and thus after 1900 pretty much all rail building ceased (except during WW II to airfields, plants and special needs)
Postwar, they started ripping out rails due to the highway system (Federal built and maintained still) plus airlines were pushed via the Government to move people. (All US aircraft manufacturers to this day are paid to design their planes to carry troops / cargo if the need arises).
So rails were built with private money (plus land grants by the Federal to put in 1000 miles of rail over land to get to the other side out west) but roads and airlines were subsided fully by the Federal Government (though taxes).
A person talked about going from London to the Med in less than a day - 620 miles - so that is like going from Maine and JUST getting to Washington DC - 709 miles - you are barely 1/2 the way to Miami which is  1709 miles (point to point distances).
Let's build a high speed rail link from NYC to LA its only 2,400 MILES. A HS rail from London to Moscow is ONLY 1589 miles or so.
People keep comparing the US to (Western) Europe and it a totally false comparison because of our size and geography.