I have this feeling that we get obsessed with these kinds of 'how to' projects partly to avoid the harder questions of 'how come' i.e. 'why'.
Why do we feel a need to travel very rapidly over long distances. Somehow humans survived for millennia without this ability. Having the ability...the technical know how and resources...to do stupid, wasteful and unnecessary things, yet choosing not to do them, I would say, is one touchstone of wisdom (or at least of non-idiocy, which is maybe the highest we can, occasionally, hope for in our collective actions these days).
Are many trips taken today unnecessary, and taken “because we can”? Yes.
Have most societies grown up around the idea that travel is necessary and useful? Yes.
Is the need to travel rapidly over long distances necessary? Sometimes. In 1925, the Great Race of Mercy delivered life-saving medicine by dog sleds to Nome, Alaska when a diphtheria epidemic threatened the town. The Continental Raliroad opened up the western U.S. for development in a way Conestoga Wagons could not.
Transportation that allows the spread of populations out of overcrowded cities can promote better health environments while still keeping access to centralized businesses and industry. The speed of the transportation is an important factor in the feasability of living at a distance.
Fast transportation is not all good, nor all bad. A new form of transportation that decreases carbon emissions, is more energy-efficient than existing options, and just happens to be faster should not be devalued simply because more speed is one of its benefits.