California will spend 9 trillion dollars, 20 years, and enormous amounts of drama and still have slower trains than Spain. 

But sure make fun of siestas and lazy Europeans and so on. Getting lots done in that frantic American workday of yours? How much of it was spent stuck in traffic?

Average train speed by country:

Measuring things at @spindl.

My FID is lower than all but 52 of you.

The US would build trains faster if they were tied to the capitalist machine.

Make the first floor seats with media experiences full of ads and the second floor a food court, and shopping without sales tax and you'll get companies rushing to build trains and people riding them.