Originally Posted by
i fly planes
LOL geography? There are railways that traverse the Alps all over. Is that a Hannity talking point? LOL
No he's right. Shorter distances and very high population density makes rail a much better fit in Europe, Asia, etc.
The vast distances in the US mean that even a fast train quickly loses it's appeal as the economic costs of transit time (to the railroad and the pax) mount.
For shorter distances, Americans just drive their own car (Europeans and Asians are very likely to not even own a car). You could of course eliminate personal vehicles in the US, but the government would have to do that at gunpoint.
Also the infrastructure is a huge challenge, existing rail is cheap and more importantly has the historical right of way to run freight trains through your neighborhood at midnight. High speed rail would need different lines with a different physical layout than convenentional rail so they would need imminent domain and lots of it. Once they got past the lawsuits and NIMBYs, it would be very, very expensive. The flight levels are actually free...