re: #86 KGxvi

One of the reasons that the New York to Chicago train takes 19 hours is because it has 26 stops (and goes first from New York to Boston). High speed rail has to have fewer stops by design, the Chinese one only has 3-10 stops from what little research I’ve done.

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.