re: #91 klys (maker of Silmarils)

There’s a whole host of reasons why it takes so long but the biggest one is that Amtrak is not high speed rail and is not designed to be.

For true high speed rail you don’t want at grade crossing, among other things. Also Amtrak would actually want to own its own tracks, which it doesn’t in the majority of the country.

To expand on that, this is the legacy of the old railroad companies, which used to run both passengers and freight. By the 1960s, they were losing money on passenger rail, so the Feds made Amtrak to take over all the long distance passenger service, but the private railroads kept most of the trackage. Since they’re running freight, they generally won’t invest in the kind of maintenance, let alone upgrades, that would allow any real speed for passenger service.

The Acela, I’m pretty sure, runs on Amtrak’s own track.