> You can't realistically use the same rails for freight and high speed rail. Exactly. When Europe decided to upgrade their passenger rail system last century

> You can't realistically use the same rails for freight and high speed rail. Exactly. When Europe decided to upgrade their passenger rail system last century they cannibalized their century-old existing freight network. Now 75% of their freight (by weight-distance) is by diesel truck and only 19% by rail (mostly in Eastern Europe). Similar thing happened in Japan. Obviously these are huge trade offs: costs, efficiency, quality, pollution, etc. Transportation systems are extremely complex. High speed passenger rail is just one small part of this huge picture. Transportation By Mode (EU, US, Japan) Freight: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Modal-Split-of-Freight-Transport-in-the-EU-the-USA-and-Japan_fig4_305589858 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Modal-Split-of-Freight-T... Passenger: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Modal-Split-of-Passenger-Transport-in-the-EU-the-USA-and-Japan_fig3_305589858 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Modal-Split-of-Passenger...