[arkwar]

World class - maybe, but they have certainly cut corners on their high speed regional network that has resulted in some horrific accidents (that go unreported in the rest of the world). Also, something of like this in the US would be an order of magnitude most expensive to build. The current NEC 'high-speed' plan is around $151 Billion (in 2012 dollars) which is only about a 450 mile run between Boston and DC. Planned to be completed by 2040 (if ever funded), the travel time would still be just over 3 hours to go the ~450 miles.