High Speed Rail: Coming Soon to a neighborhood near you?

The Republicans were convinced that Harry Reid was pushing for money in the stimulus package to go towards high speed rail in order to get a high speed rail line built between L.A. and Las Vegas which would obviously make Reid constituents very happy. Yet, the feds have been working on plans for high speed corridors for several years, and L.A.-L.V. is not one of those designated as a high priority project. Here's a map of projected projects that would serve the greatest good:
It's nice to see that the Pacific Northwest hasn't been left out, but this plan seems confusing. There are tiny gaps between some of the corridors; why not fill in those gaps to make fully functional regional systems? That seems most apparent in Texas where it would seem to make sense to have the triangle of Dallas/San Antonio/Houston linked up.

And, obviously, this will cost billions and billions of dollars to realize and take years but at least it's a high speed step in the right direction.