[moz23]

15-20 years is exactly the same timeframe that most of Europe uses for railway planning. That includes things like HS2 in the UK, the Berlin-Munich high speed rail project, LGV Rhin-Rhone, the new Gotthard tunnel, etc.

The main difference is that this planning is done much further in advance (although at least the UK is well behind in terms of rail capacity construction - the UK and the US have many similarities in terms of government incompetence).

Only place that is faster is China, but they work on a different scale.