Passenger Trains in Mexico

"Generally it's a good idea to have an environmental impact statement, public input, paying a living wage with benefits, building up to the highest standards, respecting property rights and many other things. But those things take a lot of time and can mean enormous extra costs. Sometimes such regulations are onerous and burdensome and dumb. But since there are an infinite number of variations, it's impossible to craft regulations to fit all contingencies. Regulations, even dumb ones, are the price we pay to live in a relatively civilized, first-world society. The Chinese, on the other hand, pay little attention to such frivolities."

I can take China out of the equation and say Brightline could get the job done a lot faster and for less money. A lot of greed and grift is going on, or at least hyper-bureaucracy, not just safety regulations and property considerations, just as we are seeing in the LAX peoplemover project.