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this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2026
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Chapotraphouse
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The entire US is also basically at zero for HSR.
There are a few snippets on the page that are like this.
Morocco has more HSR than the entire US. It took them 6 years to build 220 miles of track (2012-2018). CA HSR construction began in 2015 and not a single sleeper has been laid, to say nothing of track.
If California were to exist billions of years from now - when the sun goes ~~nova~~ red giant - the democrats will say they have a "proposal to start work to make high-speed rail a reality". But not quite yet. First - they need to form a committee to...
Ninja edit. Oops.
By comparison, the Shinkansen has a regular operating speed of 200 mph/322 kmh
And it's more than 60 years old.
I'd love to know typical 1960s and 1970s and 1980s predictions about when the US would have ~500 km of HSR. Could the US will get there by '64? 2164 I mean. I think I'm being way too optimistic for Hexbear.
I don't think the USA will ever have a significant amount of high speed rail. Firstly because of how dispersed the population is - HSR is uncommonly effective in Japan because the geography supports is, you can have just a few long main lines to get to most places. America would be a much taller order. More importantly though because the people calling the shots are wealthy assholes who can just hop on their chopper/jet, why would they bother with high speed rail?
There are plenty of places in the US that high speed rail would make sense. Even in places you wouldn't expect it. A bunch of regional airports pretty much just shuttle to nearby hubs and would be way more convenient for people if it was just a train. Take CLT to GSP or GSO. SBA to LAS. High speed rail would make a lot of sense there even if they're low density suburbs like the first example.
At least in fantasy land where it doesn't cost $1T worth of graft to build anything in this godforsaken country
I'm more pointing out that the geography based argument is easier to dupe people with in the USA. The central point is that the capitalists don't want HSR, and are happy to use geography as a scapegoat, and frankly if the American public become so well educated as to reject that idea, they're likely to go straight to revolution. High speed rail would be an unalloyed good for the US working class, which is the #1 reason it's not happening without some serious social reorganisation.
Tired, terrible arguments. You should educate yourself more on this issue.
I'm well aware that the geography based argument against HSR is disingenuous. It's also convincing to the general public because the way the American population is distributed is quite homogenous, so it's easier for the democrats and republicans to sell the idea that it won't work. HSR would be a great good to the American working class, but not having it better serves the interests of capital. As long as America remains a liberal democracy, this is likely to remain the case. Hopefully, the territory currently called the United States of America will get high speed rail eventually! I want them to and believe it will be an unalloyed good. But I will eat my hat if it happens without first achieving socialism, or at the very least removing the current neoliberal ruling class (which means both major parties would need to go at the very least), which even without a name change would effectively mean the USA no longer exists.
Lmfao. The EU and China define it as >155 mph
Guess who benefits most from that particular stretch of actual speed? The ~~professional liars~~ politicians in Washington, to no surprise.
That's because politicians prefer lines of coke to lines of speed.