WSJ: States Seek Slice of Rail Funding

An excerpt:

WASHINGTON — States applied for billions of dollars for passenger-rail projects Monday, marking the start of a stimulus program designed to kick-start high-speed rail service in the U.S. […]
Mr. Szabo said the program should be viewed as the beginning of a lengthy undertaking, akin to the decadeslong effort to build the interstate highway system.
“The states are all enthusiastic and feeling very competitive about the grants,” Mr. Szabo said. “People need to understand this isn’t about winners and losers . . . this is simply the beginning.”

The beginning of what exactly? The plan here seems to be to criss-cross the United States with high-speed rail projects that will cost billions to initiate, leaving future budgets to either finish the projects or write them off. And as we know about Congress, there is no such thing as the end of the line for the pork-barrel express.