How Two Billionaires Are Destroying High Speed Rail In America

[DetlefK]

2. US-cities aren't built for an inter-city transit-system.

European cities are tight. The train brings you to the city-center and from there you can get anywhere by public transport within half an hour.
Five minutes outside the city-limit and you will pass by meadows and forests. Squirrels, rabbits, foxes... and if you are really, really, really lucky, you can see falcons and deer.

US-cities are far more spread-out. Even if you get somewhere by train, you still need a car to get around.



You cannot just replace the car for city-to-city travels. If you do that, you also have to make sure the traveller ends up right in the action and/or doesn't need a car upon arrival.
(For example: The Cologne railway-station is right in the city-center. You get there via one of those 200-kph-bullet-trains and once you arrive it's a 5-minute-walk to the tourist-district and a 20-minute-walk to the financial district.)