It's certainly not the best project, but killing another HSR project is not the answer GML
The ARC tunnel is a project that not only died, but I personally helped kill. Among its wonderous virtues were: not providing any additional connectivity to anyone but the Bergen lines, adding up to thirty minutes to peoples commute times, providing a genuine safety hazard, not providing useful back up to the aging North River Tunnels, and costing far too much damned money. And increased capacity less than NJ Transit simply converting their Penn Station fleet into MU cars with fast access doors, (ex., MTA M8s) while removing platform obstructions, a project that would have cost perhaps $2 billion.
Had it been built it would have greatly crippled the overall NJ commuter rail system. It would have negatively impacted some commuters in convenience and would have greatly hampered commuters with respect to time, especially those on the Morris & Essex, Montclair-Boonton, and North Jersey Coast Line.
I would never, ever argue with a project that helped seriously improve transportation for large numbers of people, helped seriously improve the general image of mass transit in this country, or provide for improved overall service in our system.
As a project, the ARC tunnel, as it was on the day Christie shot it dead, needed to be killed. Because it represented a multi-billion dollar bullet being shot into the foot of New Jersey's public transportation system.
The Orlando to Tampa HSR couldn't gain as many riders as half the California system if every single person traveling between Tampa and Orlando chose to ride the train. I notice that there hasn't been too much objection to it. I'll tell you why, too. Wendell Cox and others of his ilk probably have wet dreams about this project being built. They couldn't ask for a better marshaling point than this project to derail passenger rail in this country in its entirety.
This project isn't a big step forward, or a regular step forward, or a small step forward, or even a standing in the same place. Its a step backward from an image and PR campaign standpoint. It is being built to fail. It is better for it to fail before it is built.
Edit: I don't know why it took me so long to think of this, but: It is possible somebody might infer my position is consistent with that of the Lackawanna Coalition. It is, to a point (and only to a point) about the ARC Tunnels. It does not share my opinion about the Orlando-Tampa High Speed Rail.
I am talking for myself, not the group for which I am a member.