Although Japan started this trend with the bullet trains Shinkansen in 1964, it was the arrival of the French TGV in the early 1980s that really sparked the global high-speed train revolution.

So why doesn’t the United States have a high-speed rail network like the countries above? In fact, they only have 375 kilometers of track that are legal to operate at speeds over 100 miles per hour. With the exception of the Acela line in the Northeast Corridor, there are no true high-speed trains in the United States. Only 34 out of 457 miles can be covered in 150 miles on the Acela line. Between New York and Boston, it travels at an average speed of about 65 miles per hour.

Americans are still almost entirely dependent on congested highways or a troubled air transport network.

Meanwhile, China has built about 26,000 miles (42,000 km) of high-speed rail since 2008 and plans to exceed 43,000 miles (70,000 km) by 2035.

“Many Americans have no idea about high-speed rail. They are hopelessly stuck in the highway and airline mentality,” says William Vanduono, editor-in-chief of Railway Age, North America’s oldest railroad publication.

Cars and airplanes have dominated long-distance travel in the United States since the 1950s, replacing the network of luxury passenger trains with evocative titles such as “Empire Builder”, “Super Chief” and “Silver Comet”. Famous railroads such as New York Central went bankrupt in the early 1970s, turning their trains over to Amtrak, the national passenger train operator founded in 1971.

In the decades that followed, US freight railroads could flourish, but not passenger railroads.

One of the reasons high-speed rail hasn’t been developed is because much of America is still empty. Our most populous cities actually have lower population densities than some provinces in China. While a high-speed rail route between New York and Washington, D.C. might make sense, it’s hard to see more than a few people in Missoula, Montana wanting to visit Phoenix, Arizona.

Biden investments

“Every president since Ronald Reagan has talked about the urgent need to improve infrastructure in the US, but they have always had other, more important priorities,” said Scott Sherin, commercial director of the US division of train manufacturer Alstom.

“This is a once-in-a-generation investment,” U.S. President Joe Biden said in April 2021 as he unveiled a “giant” investment plan to modernize U.S. infrastructure and increase employment, the largest since World War II.

The $2.3 trillion program includes, among other things, the modernization of 32,000 kilometers of road network and 10,000 bridges, the construction of more airports, the strengthening of infrastructure for electric vehicles, and the improvement of the quality of water and electricity supply systems. supply and broadband networks, construction and modernization of working residential and school buildings, research and development support, etc.

According to CNN