High speed rail from Richmond to Norfolk - Trains Magazine

First, an apology.  My snide first reaction to the idea of a high speed line linking Richmond and Norfolk was completely uncalled for, and it demands a much more thoughtful response.  The first reaction came from one who used to live in the Commonwealth, and who loves it but is accutely aware of its limitations.  I'm thinking of a state whose politicians confuse ordinary run-of-the-mill passenger service with bullet trains and TGVs, assuming that the voters will know no different.  Alas, some at this forum do.  Then too, this is a state that pumps less bucks into its university system (choose your metric -- per faculty member or per student, makes no difference) than any of those around it.  So the idea of Virginia FUNDING the kind of train you envision is, at first glance, absolutely ludicrous.

That having been established, your idea, or dream, or whatever else you might term it, if it is viewed in the context of improving and extending the Northeast Corridor, makes decent sense -- after the line from DC to Richmond gets electrified.  The thought here is that stimulus funds for passenger rail outside the NEC are funds wasted.  NEC is where the riders are.  In numbers far above those in other areas of the country.  To upgrade the NEC, to extend electrification to locales reasonably close to the NEC, so that tidership over the corridor is densed up -- this makes reasonably good sense.  I'm thinking straighten a few curves between New York and Boston; push Amtrak service out to the middle of Long Island (say Islip);  electrify the line from New Haven north through Hartford, Springfield  and Worcester to Boston;  straighten kinks and electrify NYC to Albany; electrify CC to Richmond and thence the Tidewater (yes, underneath Hampton Roads to Norfolk proper); perhaps extend electrification to Portland, Maine..  These projects make sense.  The sheer numbers of riders, coupled with the proximity of population centers, makes these projects feasible and cost efficient in a way that commencing passenger service between Chicago and, say, the Quad Cities does not (hey!  for the capital bucks it takes to run passenger trains to the Quad Cities I can subsidize Greyhound bus service for much less.  Oh wait, I already do!).

In that respect, connecting service to Norfolk makes sense.  Otherwise, it is so much more Chicago-Quad Cities. 

 That having been established,