You can add Texas to that list. They're aggressively working on building high-speed rail. They will beat California to it and do it at a far cheaper cost. Once they build the first line from Dallas to Houston, I think it's extremely likely they'll continue building more lines between other major cities. You do Dallas to Austin & San Antonio. Then you look at Dallas to Oklahoma City. They'll show it works, that it's financially beneficial, and that it can be done within a reasonable cost.
If Texas can't build a HSR on flat terrain at a cheaper cost than a HSR that must go over/through/around mountains, above valleys and rivers, around world-famous national parks and forests, and is twice as long...quite frankly, they're doing something wrong.
The CA HSR authority has fucked many things up, but you're comparing apples to oranges here.
The outskirts of Austin are much emptier and flatter than what they're building rail through in California. Both of those facts make it magnitudes easier to acquire a dead straight & flat right of way, which is what high speed rail needs!
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/transportation/2018/01/29/te...
https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/business/Dallas-Terminal-Renderi...