[hammersklavier]

The real question is, why are they only planning for a max speed of 79mph in the first place? Would it be following freight rails? Congestion may be a fair point, but Chicago is even more congested and manages to juggle significant commuter and Amtrak operations along with the freight ones--no Ohio city, to the best of my knowledge, has any commuter rail operations; only Chicago and the Northeastern cities managed to keep them, it seems, through the contraction from the thorough nationwide network to the miserable excuse we have for intercity passenger rail today...

And remember through all this, that most, if not all, of the major American cities prior to WWII had significant commuter rail networks!