Kirk Coolbeth: Because in the countries you mentioned, high speed rail has the support of the government. In the US it doesn't, most people travel long-distance by air and although the state-supported rail network still carries passengers, the government isn't willing to upgrade it to a high-speed network.
Alexandria Popik: There is not a great demand for high speed rail service. Even in the Northeast corridor, the Acela express high speed train takes 6 hour and 32 minutes to travel from DC to Boston at a cost of $198A flight from Reagan National to Logan takes about 1 hour and 30 minutes and costs $293. A nonstop flight from Baltimore Washington International takes 1 hour and 23 minutes and costs $114.I can drive and park at the airport, but there is no safe long tern parking at Union Station in DC.Which is a better choice?There is also the simple fact that rail is disruptive to the communities that it goes through, and high speed rail does not provide any benefit ! to those communities. High speed rail works by having limited stops, so most of the communities that it travels through do not have access to the service. When high speed rail is put on the existing railways, at grade crossings are eliminated. Rather than building bridges or tunnels for vehicular traffic, many of those at grade crossings are closed, and traffic is detoured, sometimes for miles. The railway becomes a barrier in the community. With the resistance of the communities, and the lack of any real perceived value in train travel, high speed rail has very little support....Show more
Morris Olexy: Squeaky is right on point.But even if the votes necessary could be bought (they can't, as there are no lobbyists slinging cash to the legislators, which is why there is no government support for such a project) and a high speed railway was built, Americans will stay away in droves, until their love affair with the automobile ends....Show more
Sylvie Snetting: Fo! r all intents and purposes we already have high speed rail. Ou! r trains travel much faster than a turtle or a rabbit. They may not travel as fast as the ICE in Germany or the Bullet in Japan but we North Americans prefer to travel at a leisurely pace. We enjoy sitting in traffic jams on the highways. We enjoy hanging around airorts for hours to get a flight. If we want to get from A to B quickly we drive our high speed cars for intercity travel. Heck we Park in driveways and Drive on parkways. Now you tell me what other country can make that claim....Show more
Isreal Kochheiser: it cost a lot of money, maybe japan can give us like 2 billion dollars so we can get one
Antonia Quinnett: Because we're spending too much money on immigrants who are draining our government. If we'd deport them all, we could build a high speed rail.
Mitsuko Manne: We don't even use the railroads we already have. There are freight railroads between Los Angeles and Las Vegas but there is not passenger service to Las Vegas. That would be an ! awesome trip. A lot of people do it by car and a lot of people fly but for tourists a decent rail link would be great.
Barrett Felicia: The US also has a huge (literally) geographical problem given that it's one of the largest countries in the world. It takes more money to build and maintain track and rolling stock compared to a small country like Japan or France (relatively speaking)As for China they have the advantage of not having to placate opposition parties - if the government wants something done it gets done - democracy is the best form of government but it is slow.Most importantly it is because many in the US travel by plane and unlike many European countries industrialisation happened in the era of the motorcar and the aeroplane rather than by rail. This meant there was no need for more than a basic rail infrastructure which is costly to upgrade and largely pointless when many still travel by car and plane which is not helped by many in the US dismissing cl! imate change as false...Show more
Melvin Nakama: Squeaky and SS4 ! hit two good points... 1) A lack (until now) of Government support or pressure to construct one, and 2) The geographical issue of MUCH greater distances.A VERY important 3rd reason, and one that is hampering the California High-Speed Rail Authority already: Lawyers and NIMBY's (Not In My Back-Yarders) !!! After almost a decade of planning, the CHSRA got the money from the voters in November of 2009, and IMMEDIATELY several wealthy and exclusive communities filed lawsuits to prevent the rail line from running through THEIR areas.Particularly amusing, because the CALTRAIN commuter line ALREADY runs through their towns !! But they have money and lawyers and can block the project... AND force the project to spend MILLIONS of additional money to either fight the lawsuits OR design a way around PLANS that were public record for a DECADE !!The SAME thing happens with nuclear power... lawsuits and not enough Government backing to PUSH the project through and SCREW the wealthy wh! o don't want trains in the area of THEIR gated communities (or more appropriately, WORKERS in their area: You DO know they drive trucks and wear Carhartt and Dickies... and they drink DOMESTIC Beer instead of WINE !!)...Show more
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