These subsidies distort priorities, which helps explain why California votes to spend money it doesn't have for a high-speed rail it can't afford.

WSJ: McGurn: Sandy and the Failures of Blue-Statism

"Today's announcement isn't just about faster trains - high-speed rail will create up to 30, 000 station-supported jobs in Manchester and help to drive productivity in the region, bridging the economic gap between the North and the South, " he said.

BBC: HS2 to enter Manchester via tunnel under city

Since congressional Republicans promised to zero out federal funding for high-speed rail, analysts noted, the state wouldn't have enough money to electrify the tracks, let alone build out.

WSJ: Allysia Finley: How Insider Politics Saved California's Train to Nowhere

If there's to be high-speed rail linking Glasgow and Edinburgh, it doesn't look so good for the budgets necessary to upgrade rail links between the central belt and both Aberdeen and Inverness.

BBC: Making tracks and political points

But it wouldn't just be an airport - the ambitious plans for a Thames Hub would bring together rail, freight logistics, aviation, energy and its transmission, flood protection as well as regional development.

BBC: Lord Foster unveils plans for Thames Estuary airport

"There were a couple of times during my 40-year career where people wouldn't have given very good odds on the private rail system even surviving, " Chairman Goode says.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Again, I don't know what message Eric Cantor delivers when he tells you in Washington that it hasn't, but then tells his constituents, gee, I hope we get this grant to build high-speed rail in the district and create jobs.

WHITEHOUSE: Press Briefing