The High-Speed Rail Boom

"Want to get from Paris to London in just over two hours? How about Barcelona to Madrid in two and a half?

Take the train.

As roads and airports get slower, trains are going ever faster. How fast? Think 125 mph (201.12 km/h) and up, according to the International Union of Railways. And more are on the way.

But the cost--say, $20 million a mile--makes adoption a pricey project.

Still, once they're in place, these trains exceed the speed of automobiles by two or three times. And while that can't compare with jet aircraft, the time spent traveling can be equal or less when you factor in the time going from city to city, especially when both are in the same region."

"The car-dominated United States is a clear laggard. The only operational near-high-speed train is Amtrak's Acela Express. And it is hardly high-speed. On paper, it can go 150 mph (241 km/h), but it normally averages less than 60 mph (96.5 km/h) due to track limitations. A trip from Washington to Boston takes about six-and-a-half hours. That's about the speed of the now-historical New York-to-Chicago 20th Century Limited."