Why can't America have high-speed trains? (xpost from GD)

[KamaAina]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/03/opinions/smart-high-speed-trains-america/index.html

Imagine being able to travel from New York to Los Angeles without having to step on a plane, yet be able to do so in a fraction of the time it would take to drive. On the surface, that tantalizing prospect took a step closer with the news last month that a Japanese maglev train had reached a top speed of close to 400 mph, breaking its own world record in the process.

And the sight of futuristic looking trains whizzing past platforms at hundreds of miles per hour isn't confined to Japan: China, France and Spain, to name a few, have their own high-speed rail networks. Indeed, while these bullet trains may look futuristic, they have been around for decades; they're a tried and tested technology that the Japanese debuted over 50 years ago.

So surely it's only a matter of time before large numbers of U.S. passengers are doing a daily commute to New York from Washington and Boston in about the time it would take them to drive to work in their own cities, right?...

While several countries have undertaken the tough work of raising the money to invest in bullet trains, it's unlikely the United States will ever see the vast network of high-speed trains that blanket other countries. Indeed, passenger rail service in the United States lags behind much of the rest of the developed world, for several reasons.

[ladjf]

1. Because the politicians in charge are too dumb

and greedy to pay for the fast trains. They aren't even maintaining the ones we have.

[daleanime]

2. Because airlines are more profitable....

then railroads?

[elleng]

3. This country's too big,

France, Spain and Japan are MUCH smaller, and China's less populated between major cities. AND there's too little interest in such travel in the US. Who HERE, thinking/needing to travel to/from CA and NY, would actually CHOOSE to take a train, regularly, even if it were available?

Any IDEA the time and expense involved in constructing such, coast to coast?

Let's be real, think of appropriate corridors here where it SHOULD and COULD be done, and see how much actual interest, passenger-wise and business-wise, there is.

And Congress! Positive Train Control??? https://www.fra.dot.gov/Page/P0152

[-none]

4. For the same reason we lag behind the rest of the world in so many other things.

Not enough immediate profit. Or it would cut into current profits.
That is why we cant have nice things like Single Payer Health care, or bridges that don't fall down from old age, or living wage jobs, or reasonable paternity leave, or... You get the picture.