[dbloom]

California HSR goes to San Francisco, Millbrae, San Jose, Gilroy, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Hanford, Bakersfield, Palmdale, Burbank, Los Angeles, and Anaheim. It provides frequent single-seat rides between every origin-destination pair of these cities. Many of these routes don't currently have any similar commercial air service (or the air service that does exist has very high fares due to low competition and scale), so HSR is providing new connectivity that didn't exist before.

The San Jose to Bakersfield segment is scheduled to begin operating in 2021. It will provide 1 hour travel time between Fresno and San Jose[1]. High speed rail isn't replacing regional rail -- it's providing it over a much longer distance than would otherwise be possible.

[1] http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/07/23/will-san-jose-to-fresn...

[rayiner]

Regional rail facilitates regular trips between satellite cities and core cities, usually for commuting. Fares on Metro North/MARC/Metra/SEPTA are on the order of $5. On the California HSR, the fare from Fresno to San Francisco is estimated to be over $60. That puts it completely out of the ballpark of regional rail into Amtrak territory.