Via the Environmental Law and Policy Center's blog I saw this piece from Business Week:

High-speed rail plans in the Midwest and California appear to be front runners in the race for $8 billion in stimulus cash based on federal criteria released Wednesday that favor projects with established revenue sources and multistate cooperation.

California voters last November approved nearly $10 billion in state bonds that could be combined with federal money to build 800 miles of high-speed track. Eight Midwest states have cooperated closely to promote a network, with Chicago as its hub, that would join 12 metropolitan areas within 400 miles.

Karen Rae, deputy administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, stopped short of naming favorites during an interview with The Associated Press in Chicago, but she praised Midwestern states for their cooperation and pointed to California's bond issue.
[...]

The FRA's 68 pages of often technical rules also seek projects that would reduce regional highway and airport congestion and create jobs, especially among lower income Americans. [...]

The Midwest project foresees upgrades of three existing routes: Chicago-St. Louis; Chicago-Madison, Wis., via Milwaukee; and Chicago-Pontiac, Mich., through Detroit. Later, they'd upgrade a St. Louis-Kansas City, Mo. route. The governors of the eight Midwest states -- Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin -- wrote Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in April appealing for money for the region, one of the hardest hit by the recession.

The California High-Speed Rail Authority has said it hopes to build 800 miles of track for high-speed trains and would ask for federal funds to work on lines between San Francisco and San Jose and Los Angeles and Anaheim.

These kinds of projects are among the best programs funded by the stimulus bill. Not only will they create construction jobs during the next few years, they will provide lasting benefits in terms of energy use, air pollution and quality of life. I would have liked to see rail projects receive even more stimulus money, but $8 billion is not chump change.

Expanding regular passenger rail is also worthwhile if it provides more alternatives to driving along busy corridors. I was excited to read a few days ago that a passenger rail line between Chicago and Iowa City could be running in two to three years. Apparently an Amtrak feasibility study for this route showed "very promising" results. Such a line would run through the Quad Cities and could eventually be extended to connect Des Moines and Omaha.

I highly recommend BruceMcF's post "How To Build a National High Speed Rail System" for anyone interested in this issue.

There was also good discussion of high-speed rail in a recent MyDD diary by atdleft. I agree with him on the need to connect Las Vegas with southern California population centers by rail, although I would rather see stimulus money fund wheels-on-track high-speed rail (as opposed to the much more expensive maglev approach).