Why doesn't the US have a high speed rail system?

Answer 1

I don't work for the government but I can attempt to answer your question:

1) The US has an extremely powerful automotive industry which uses a tremndous amount of its financial profits to fund lawyers who argue the case for protecting their industry to the lawmakers in Washington DC who then in turn, control things from there. 2) Since the beginning (Ford's invention, 1904-1912)when the car replaced the horse, Americans have always loved the car. This is because American culture is deeply rooted in loving freedom and independence (on both the collective- societal level and also an individual level). Since at that time men controlled the purchasing power of the society, owning a car became as much a personal status symbol as a symbol of national economic power--Not only did we invent it, we promoted it more than anyone else, becasue we needed it more than others (such as the europeans who, have many small winding sttreets and crowded cramped cities). Remember-- Europe is much older than the US-- it was never designed for cars 1st becasue governments never expected the invention; second, becasue governments never expected a huge increases in population requiring more space and more people on the road. Our nation by contrast is quite spread out expecially iun Florida, Texas and California--Japan and France do not have the same landscape. 4) we are standing by to eventually purchase one, but need to wait for France, Japan and Germany to "iron out" the weaknesses in their systems before designing one which solves everybody's problems. Hope that helped!

The U.S. population is not dense, people are separated far across the nation. For this type of country, air travel is an advantage. High- speed rail will make better profits in high-density countries like China, Japan, Mexico, ets.....