A company called ET3 has developed the technology to transport people via magnetic tubes across the country in 45 minutes. Get to London in one hour and China in two hours. Just as the modern rail system was laid in this country, so too can the modern tube system. Here is a link to a news article on Yahoo explaining how it works:
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending-now/futuristic-high-speed-tube-trav...
It is time for a grand project. So, let's skip high speed rail and go straight for the 21st century solution to transportation.