> The US has a comparable train to your Berlin-Freiburg route. > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acela_Express https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acela_Express Well

> The US has a comparable train to your Berlin-Freiburg route. > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acela_Express https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acela_Express Well, it lags by over 100km/h of allowed speed (and more in practice I tihnk), but then the fast trains in Germany can't use their top-speed in a lot of regions either. The network isn't even remotely as varied. But, as you say: > Unsurprisingly, it goes through a high population density region. Everything in Germany is extremely dense compared to large swathes of the US. It'd not be feasible to have every medium sized city on a high-speed train network in the US. But the situation on the US west coast, where I now live, is really kinda bad. There not being reasonable "public"/rail transport between Seattle<->Portland<->SF/Bay Area<->LA is hard to understand from a European/German perspective, although I see the political perspective of it being hard to do. You really get used to that tho. I recently went to a conference in Stockholm, and reflexively wanted to hail a cab from the airport to the hotel/venue. Just to remember to check public transport: 15min less than by car.