It's not viable to build a long-distance rail line given the same total time (even if more comfortable since people want cheap and fast), especially not at the cost of $100B+.
If you want to call it inflated prices because of graft then fine, but that means you need to solve that first. Which goes back to my original point that there are many other obstacles that need to be overcome before high-speed rail makes sense here.
And like I said before, California is actually trying to do this and completely failed: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/2/15/18224717/c...
California on the other hand was going to spend $100B for 840km (phase 1, beyond the central corridor on both sides) or $119M per kilometer. That's obviously 7X China's cost and 5X Europe's cost. Yes, that Europe, the one with the onerous regulations.
It's hard to point at California's staggeringly inefficient attempt as a reason why rail is bad.
A better starting point would be Via Rail's corporate plan 2017-2021 [2].
[1] http://www.globalconstructionreview.com/sectors/why-china-ca...
[2] https://www.viarail.ca/sites/all/files/media/pdfs/About_VIA/...
Montreal-Ottawa travel time is 13% faster by train than car, and 30% faster than air. Average fare is $48.50 CAD ($35 USD). For comparison, a flight would be $167 to $186 each way, 4X more expensive and 30% longer end to end.
Numbers are more comparable on the Toronto to Ottawa and Toronto to Montreal corridors, with train travel coming in approximately the same time end to end as a flight but 25% less expensive. This corridor is highly competitive and similar distance to SF/LA.
Rail does in fact satisfy your requirements for short trips.
(editypo)
SFO is in San Mateo, the next county over -- almost 15 miles away. Oakland airport is closer to 20 miles away. A minimum of 30 minutes by car, 40 minutes by Bart from downtown SF. On the other hand, the high-speed rail link would pick up at the Salesforce Transit Center (Embarcadero Station) at the corner Howard and Fremont, stopping at San Jose Diridon station.
Yes plaines are fast in the air, that's not a surprise. However, they're epically slow when parked at the gate while you clear security, epically slow as they taxi, dead stopped as they wait to take off due to ATC hold and weather issues, and similarly dead stopped when they're waiting for the previous plane to clear the gate at the destination airport, while you wait in line to get off, and while you wait for your bags, and while you wait for your taxi.
C'mon now. "Plane go fast" is just a small part of the story, and I'm an AA EXP.
Again, I think the infrastructure costs in the US tend to be massively overinflated due to graft instead of actual cost.