On a side note, I really like the high speed rail they are going to construct in California...I wish that's what they were proposing for Ohio. Sacramento to LA in 3.5 hours! Unbelievable.
All past attempts since the 1970s to build that high-speed system failed. But others decided to incrementally ramp up existing Amtrak services from almost nothing to where there are now a dozen daily San Joaquin valley trains, two dozen Santa Barbara-LA-San Diego trains, and three dozen San Jose-Sacramento trains. They built up ridership, station-area developments, local/regional transit circulation systems and therefore a support system and a political constituency for the scale of investment for high-speed networks we all want.
To go from 0 to 220 mph is like going from kindergarten to graduate school in one step. It's why every high-speed rail system built in the world has had a conventional-speed precedent.
To bring this discussion back to its topic, a light-rail system can be part of that support network for a high-speed rail line.
