re: #385 Irish Rose If I can respond: Europe and Asia (Japan specifically) are much smaller land masses than the US. Could we invest in High Speed Rail: yes. How effective and efficient would it be? Questionable. Those areas that would best be served would either be the East & West Coast between high density locations as a people mover (New York to Washington, LA to San Francisco for instance)or as bulk load transport across long distances with little in the way to slow them down (from New York to LA via Chicago, for instance). The cost/benefit is very questionable, as there are other less costly solutions at this time. Trying to apply European/Oriental solutions to US issues have a tendency towards failure. Just as American solutions to European/Oriental have a tendency towards the accusation of Imperialism…My penny’s worth.