Large parts of the US are ideal for high-speed rail. The Eastern Seaboard is basically perfectly laid out for high-speed rail (Boston - NYC - Philadelphia - Ba

Large parts of the US are ideal for high-speed rail. The Eastern Seaboard is basically perfectly laid out for high-speed rail (Boston - NYC - Philadelphia - Baltimore - DC). The Midwest has tons of ideal city pairs, such as Chicago - Detroit or Chicago - St. Louis. Even a line between Chicago and NYC would be practical (3.5 hours downtown to downtown with modern HSR). The main problems for HSR in the US are: extremely car-centric development, highly individualistic politics, incapability of pulling off large public projects.