text: John your basing you post on the best  possible-maybe scenario. Spending the money is a real expense not a maybe scenario.  The $ 400 billion over 25 years is a best case scenario. However you left out all the other possibilities including building the line and never having it operate at a brake even.  You can invest all your money but you alone don't get to chose how others invest theirs. I ask why industry is not jumping into the act rather than staying away?
  
  At this point the actual cost for the line is still being presented as an engineering guess. Considering how often these "guesses" are significantly under actual cost the rates of return you site can change substantially.