[CalRobert]

They picked the one city pair already served well by rail??? One where there will be substantial time lost to immigration queues anyway, thus reducing the relative benefit of high speed travel?

SF-LA, London-Dublin, etc would have made a lot more sense.

[pale-hands]

Good point, but this is just the BBC giving an example of a distance that its audience can easily grasp.

[jacquesm]

I hope the took the requirements of two alternates to heart in their range calculations otherwise - bad pun - this won't fly.