Fortunately local public transit would most likely come out of city budgets, while high speed rail would be state/federal. We absolutely could (and should) do both at the same time.

You know, if we weren’t spending the money on that 7th highway lane that will surely fix traffic this time, or the 200th empty asphalt field that’s used only 5% of the time but we need to keep around on the off chance that the entire town gets the urge to go grocery shopping at the same time.