Pretty telling how they left California off the list. The California High Speed Rail project is a testament to the pork, inefficiencies, poor planning, and NIMBYism involved in major infrastructure projects in this state.
My guess is that these routes are chosen based on population of the end points, distance, and geography. California loses based on geography: too many massive mountain ranges you would need to tunnel through.
The US is not a place where the state actually owns all the property, nor a place where the state has an indefeasible right of first refusal to purchase all property for a nominal sum.