> Especially since you would get 3.5 hour trains Bay Area <-> Seattle and 4.5 hour trains to Vancouver.

Hiroshima to Tokyo is just over 3.5 hours on the Shinkansen, and it’s a 500 mile trip. SF TO Seattle is roughly 800 miles… You’re making a very optimistic projection.

> Just looking at the towns between Portland and Sacramento Salem, Eugene and Medford exist.

You’re barely cracking 500k people and covering the most difficult terrain on the entire corridor.