To build an entire new class of freight rail rolling equipment and engines that is capable of well over twice that of current stock would be wildly expensive. Considering the economics of rail freight as they are now, It's hard to see a model that has a sufficient ROI to go faster, even if the route infrastructure was initially free of any cost to the rail companies.
It's only been in the last 4 or 5 years that almost exactly the same "scheme" collapsed completely in the maritime industry. State and local governments were going to invest a lot of taxpayer dollars to build advanced infrastructure and cargo transfer "nodes" and investors/operators were going to build ultra-high-speed cargo vessels. The city of Philadelphia spent a ton of taxpayer money on what was going to be their node/port for a trans-atlantic high-speed freight service. Volvo, Fed Ex and others invested heavily in the ship designs for it, and so on. But all the projects eventually died when it became clearer and clearer, over time, that "going really fast/faster/fastest" did not automatically confer economic viability.
A couple of contracting firms are disagreeing with your opinion. What are these type of projects called now? Pork is out, economic stimulus is blase
