[zwieback]

The metro areas are dense and tend to have decent public transport. The problem is in the smaller towns and rural areas. When I ride my bike around in the Willamette Valley I can go miles and miles without hitting even a small town. In Germany the next sizable town is usually minutes away.

[littlestymaar]

> In Germany the next sizable town is usually minutes away.

Maybe in Germany, but France has barely populated areas and yet we have one the biggest high-speed rail network on the planet. In fact, the fact that France is the biggest European country after Russia is probably the main reason high speed rails was invested on back in the 70s: the bigger your country the more you need high speed rail.

[kingofpandora]

Second biggest ... if you include overseas territories!

[littlestymaar]

Right, Ukraine pre-invasion was bigger than France without French Guyana, but now they have a tough fight ahead if they want to claim that title again :/

[bobthepanda]

Most Americans live in metro areas; the figure for the United States is 80% according to the census.

High speed rail is not going to do a lot of good in South Dakota, but we can serve most Americans with some type of decent rail without contorting ourselves. And the bar is on the floor since a lot of Amtrak is not even a single round trip seven days a week.