The problem isn’t really the technology but the infrastructure. To speed things up tracks with much gentler curves are needed. In the NE Corridor the land which would have to be bought would be very expensive. Add to this the objections of locals who don’t want to live near a high speed rail line and the environmental regulations.
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which is why it’s so perplexing that areas outside the NE corridor are not seriously explored for high speed rail. The US has some of the most expansive and uninterrupted landscapes in the world with wide open plains and flat farmland as far as the eye can see. You can literally run a straight line track from western Pennsylvania to Wyoming and not have to deviate more than a degree or two.
Of course the economics of a nationwide system would be challenging since low population outside the coasts and low ridership would doom the project for all but the densest of regions…but still, there are dozens if not hundreds of city to city corridors where high speed rail can be economically viable if done properly.
With city housing becoming more unaffordable and people having to move further and further out but still commuting in, rail just makes sense compared to expensive and clogged highways. But Americans love their cars and it would take a major social adjustment to ween us off the roads. That or gas going to $6+/gallon and urban congestion tolls.
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Actually there have been efforts recently to establish high speed passenger rail lines in the western US–Houston to Dallas and Los Angeles to Las Vegas. There is also this much older proposal for a high speed rail line New York to Chicago.
Another problem, which I didn’t mention in my original post, is the surprisingly high cost to build new rail lines in the USA compared to other countries. The estimated cost of the proposed new rail tunnels under the Hudson River exceed the original cost of the construction of the existing tunnels, Pennsylvania Station in New York, and the four tunnels under the East River–even when adjusted for inflation by many indicators. I would love to have the current plans for this project examined by European and Japanese engineers to see why costs in the USA exceed those in other developed countries.
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Also, freight is a lot more forgiving if rails aren’t as smoothly maintained as for passenger service. A hopper of corn doesn’t complain if it sways around like a ferryboat at 2 a.m. The big cross country lines in the US were constructed for the big freight lines, not Amtrak.
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Every part of the process of building public infrastructure in the US is deeply broken, from what I can tell. The rules governing the bidding process are so utterly and completely gamed and warped that it’s just sort of understood that the first one-off, LLC consortium to take a project will spend all the money, do about 25% of the work, then declare bankruptcy. A good project is one that completes on only its third BS vapor LLC.
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Alas, many things from Japan can’t be replicated elsewhere…
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Also add Florida. Though it currently only runs from Miami to West Palm Beach at the usual 79 MPH speed, it is being extended, with WPB to Cocoa to run at 110 MPH and Cocoa to Orlando at 125 MPH. Not “high speed” by TGV standards, it’s still a good start.
Brightline is privately run and has nothing to do with Amtrak. I hope they make it… it’s the first private intercity passenger service since the Rock Island shut down the Peoria and Quad Cities Rockets (before subsequently being liquidated in 1980).
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Still waiting for that lovely infrastructure plan Trump promised over and over again that was supposed to give us the best roads, airports, and rail in the world.
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I’ve got some beachfront property in Atlantis I’d like to show you…
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Obigatory xkcd:
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Mostly it was the automobile companies’ love of cars, and the fact that they could buy congressmen while Amtrak couldn’t.
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Guess I’ll be that person:
Well, at least self-driving will keep the riff-raff from getting together to make plans for the future, though! 
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No reason why it can’t be. I’m all for looking at solutions other countries came up with, and implementing those here. But I guess, we can’t because, patriotism?
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Isn’t that fascinating? I’d just assumed they lobbied local government and got their way, but they were actually found guilty in court of “conspiracy”. Back when we had laws against white collar crime, I guess.
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