The UK has 3 trains an hour between London and Manchester (160 miles, about the same as Boston-New York), takes 2 hours, running on victorian infrastructure and

The UK has 3 trains an hour between London and Manchester (160 miles, about the same as Boston-New York), takes 2 hours, running on victorian infrastructure and a mixed mode railway, In Germany, Berlin to Hannover, 180 miles, multiple trains per hour, under 2 hours. Many similar services out of say Frankfurt or Cologne too. Italy, Florence-Rome, about 170 miles, 2 trains an hour taking 90 minutes. For longer trips -- 2 trains per hour from London to Edinburgh (390 miles) taking just over 4 hours, again based on 150 year old railway, reliable clockface services. Madrid to Barcelona, 400 miles, hourly or better taking 2.5 hours OK, France, Japan, Korea, China, Italy, Spain have the high speed services, but most of the western world - certainly areas as dense as the US's north east corridor - has this reliability, frequency and speed on the c. 200 mile trips like Boston-New York or New York - Washington. (There's probably more argument for a 3 train per hour Boston-Washington multiple-stop service taking about 4 hours, rather than a dedicated high speed service which only stops in New York, but the point is that the US is so far detached from the western world it's unbelivable)