General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Why the United States will never have high-speed rail [View all]frazzled
(18,402 posts)Don't you remember Madrid in 2004? 193 people were killed and 2,000 injured.
But this is not even an issue: Gov. Gavin Newsom has just pulled the plug on California high-speed train transportation project, except in the Central Valley. There will be no LA to SF train for the foreseeable future. There should be in theory, but in practice, it's all but kaput for the time being.
I have ridden the Acela train (not so high speed) from Boston to NY when I lived there. And I much prefer train travel between major cities (in fact, I loath air travel). I've traveled many places in Europe on train. But now, from my perch in the Midwest, I can't see much of anywhere I would travel train: it's just too far to either coast (well, I might consider it to NYC, but definitely not to LA).
Shorter routes between large cities New York to DC, LA to SF, Tokyo to Osaka make sense. An entire network that encompasses the entire, vast US is probably never going to happen.