[jacobush]

You could just build better trains, it's going to take state or fed level money to do that anyway. If the trains were better, people would use them. In practice, todays 70 mph is not much different from 45 mph. You can't drive 70 mph nonstop, medium speed is lower.

[avhon1]

Yes, my fantasy is less like "improving Amtrack" and more like "replicate Japan's Shinkansen".

[ectospheno]

Japan is the size of California. Replicating that across all of a larger country such as the United States isn't realistic.

[0xffff2]

>You can't drive 70 mph nonstop

What do you mean by that? If you're covering long distances in the Western US, it's not at all uncommon to be driving 70+ for hours at a time.