It's not a bias or exaggerated feasibility study. Make sure you review the data carefully. You make the claims that the Paris-Lyons region has three times the population. According to Wikipedia, the Paris-Lyon greater economic region has a combined population of ~15 million people. The Colorado HSR ridership projections are based on 2035 population estimates of a Front Range Mega-Corridor regional population of ~9 million people. That's not three times the population.
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The population of the city of Lyon is 472,305. Together with its suburbs and satellite towns, Lyon forms the second-largest metropolitan area in France after that of Paris, with the population of its urban area estimated to be 1,348,832 (Insee, 1999) and that of its metropolitan area 1,748,271 (2006). Its urban region (Urban Community of Lyon), represents half of the Rhône-Alpes région population with three million inhabitants.[1]
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The city of Paris, within its administrative limits largely unchanged since 1860, has an estimated population of 2,203,817 (January 2006),[5] but the Paris aire urbaine (or metropolitan area) has a population of 11,769,433 (January 2006),[4]
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You also claim that the Paris-Lyons region is far more dense and appropriate for passenger rail. Well Colorado's mountain resort and town's are land restricted and thus typically very dense for their sizes. Add to that that these destinations serve millions of ski tourists each year. Tourists which would rather not rent a car and drive for several hours on hazardous mountain roads to get there. Add that factor and projected ridership jumps.
Also consider that Denver is very urban and dense for an American city of it's size and is constructing the most extensive mass transit system for an American city of it's size. Then consider the other urban population centers along the Front Range, such as dense and urban Boulder and the rapidly growing urban/eco-friendly/progressive city of Fort Collins. To the south you have a sprawling mess in Colorado Springs, but it draws million of tourists a year in it's own right and has massive government and military instillations which will be drawn to the HSR service from Colorado Springs to Denver International Airport. And it's civilians which will be drawn both to Denver International Airport and Colorado's mountain resorts.
So yes, I'm sure Paris draws more tourists than Colorado. but for the most part, those Parisian tourist arrive at their destination (Paris). In Colorado, tourists arrive at Denver and then have to get to their destinations by other means. Millions of these annual tourists will almost certainly opt to take the HSR train to their resort destination. This leads to a much higher ridership potential for such a line, than any typical system in place at current.
And what this was all really about was the Chicago-Saint Louis line only attracting ~3 million riders per year. I thought this was very low. But after further thought, I realize that most of the riders will either be local Chicago residents traveling to Saint Louis or local Saint Louis residents traveling to Chicago.
You won't have people flying from all over the world to Chicago to get on the HSR train and take it to Saint Louis or visa-versa. The Colorado HSR study was a poor comparison (it was simply what I was most familiar with). Colorado is a rapidly growing mega-corridor region served by only one major city and airport (Denver) and it has scattered and somewhat far flung world class resorts and tourist attractions which can only be accessed via Denver, followed by a transfer to another mode of transit. These are very unique circumstances which inflate projected riderships greatly. Perhaps 3 million per year for Chicago-Saint Louis is not too far off, after all.