[dreamcompiler]

The other problem (that Europeans often don't understand) is just how big America is. Texas alone is twice as big as the UK and Ireland combined.

My point is that covering America with train tracks would cost $trillions. Yes, there was a time when we built something on that scale: The interstate highway system. But those days are long over. American politics is now far too gridlocked to build a public bathroom, much less a trillion-dollar public transit system. Even if it ended up saving money and the planet.

[bluGill]

Don't let big become an excuse. Sure the US is too big to go NYC->LA via train. However DC->Boston is still a great route to run a train, a high speed train on that route should decimate plane and car travel on the route. Connecting everything east of the Mississippi via train (and possibly just a little west) makes perfect sense. There is also a great north-south route along the west coast.

Yes building those trains would cost a lot. It shouldn't be trillions (that it will be is a problem we should fix!). Lets not be defeatist: lets demand better of our politicians. We have good ideas of where things are going wrong, but politicians see transit as a way to throw money at union labor and consultants (democrats); or a complete waste (the Republicans). Both sides need to do better.