Quote Originally Posted by Plutonic Panda View Post
California High-Speed Rail - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

98.1 billion final estimated full build cost
California is going to be more expensive to build out than most areas in the Plains and Great Lakes. So you can't automatically take their cost per mile (for example) and say it will equal the same for the line that will run Cleveland-Toledo-Chicago or Chicago-St. Louis. Mostly flat terrain and the ability to have straight lines will be much more feasible than winding in an out of the mountains in California.