Why can't the USA build a TGV, or bullet train that goes from D.C. to Philly, to NYC?

Question

There must be enough people who would make that trip to make it worth while?

Y'know a train that goes like 200mph and competes wtth the airlines.

This wouldn'nt be amtrack. They should hire the Japanese company that did the bullet train.

Answer 1

Julie is on the money. The original idea of the Acela was supposed to be something like the ICE but then practicality set in. There would have to be a overhaul of the entire Acela system to support a high speed train. No grade level crossings, new track, etc. Shutting down the existing lines to make the improvements was impossible because it would prevent freight moving and adding more tracks would be prohibitively expensive if all possible because most land in the northeast is privately owned. the court cases alone to use imminent domain laws would be a problem.
Please stop blaming Bush for EVERYTHING!!!!! As inept as he is, he and the conservatives that some seem to loath aren't the cause of ALL that is wrong with the world. Amtrak had problems long before Bush was in the White House and will long after he is gone.
For all the liberties we no longer have under Bush (I for one haven't lost anything), look at what we can potentially lose.....the right to go to any doctor we want regardless of cost as long as we can afford it, the right to drive whatever kind of car we want, weather or not to smoke, or what we eat. Think about it.

Answer 2

The main reason is the cost of providing the infrastructure, particularly the rails on which a bullet train should run. The current rails cannot support such a train.

The high speed train in the US, the Acela, already does this run (and on to Boston). Acela takes 3 hours Washington DC to New York, as opposed to 5 or more via car (5 with good traffic -which there never is). So our fast train does already do this. It is not as fast as the TGV or ICE in Europe.

Answer 3

Because it's a highly populated corridor, and people don't want a speeding train near them. Acela is able to go faster than it does, but due to opposition from local groups along the route, it doesn't. The TGV and other bullet trains connect cities that aren't part of metropolitan corridors.

Answer 4

Because unions and the high greedy cost in this country of doing anything anymore prohibits getting anything done any more......in this small town I live in the cost of a simple little fire station cost over three millions dallors..a real joke and rip off of tax payers money...

Oh yeah,,,I forgot to add, a year later a guy had a fire in his pickup truck three blocks from the station,,it took the fire dept twenty minute to get there and of course the truck was distroyed .. this is no joke, it is in the Port Townsend, WA news paper...

Answer 5

the reason is cause it would put airlines out of business and they would not make money unless it is international flights our country is greedy if we had this the united states would be better with bullet trains

Answer 6

There is Amtrak, which Bush is trying to kill, but of course without funding it can't rival air travel too much.

The conservatives don't like the idea too much, probably because it conserves energy and the oil companies and car companies don't like that.