Now factor in the cost paid by laborers and their families in the form of low wages and hgh risk of detah and dismemberment, and see how cheap FTR was.

You can always get something cheap if someone else pays

Compare feeding and clothing the world now to 200 years ago. We get much more done at a much lower consumer price tag.

And of course CHSR is far more complicated -- travelling through dense, developed urban areas at much higher speeds.

Is it really any surprise that after the easier projects are all done, the remaining projects are harder?