High Speed Rail has become an attractive alternative for public transport investment to overcome problems associated with traffic congestion. This paper presents a framework for comparing between two modes of transport; high speed rail (HSR) and conventional rail (CR). The framework is based on two key decision criteria, which have the most influence on passengers’ choices among transport modes; namely travel time and cost. The framework is based on converting the two criteria to a time-value to enable direct comparison. The framework is applied on a major transportation corridor in Egypt linking its two largest cities; Cairo and Alexandria, as a case study to investigate the potential of augmenting the existing conventional rail with a high speed rail line. In order to facilitate comparison, potential passengers are classified into three categories according to their level of income: low, medium and high. The results show that in the low income, the conventional railway is more attractive than the high speed rail, while in both medium and high incomes, the high speed rail is more attractive. Finally, sensitivity analysis is undertaken to analyze how the results are affected by changes in the model underlying assumptions.