U.S. Won Space Race but Lost High Speed Rail Race

Ben Adler writes about how the deficits in the U.S. rail transport system compares to the rest of the world:

"GoEuro ranked all countries with high-speed rail lines (as defined by its slightly complex criteria) and made some arbitrary choices as to which factors matter most. It put the biggest emphasis on population coverage, as it should, but its second most important factor was record speed, which is silly. America would benefit more from 10 train lines that can go 150 miles per hour than one that can go 250. Operating speed, which is the third most valued factor in this ranking, is more useful."

"Ranked on population coverage alone, the U.S. is also second-to-last, with only 3.7 percent of the population served by high-speed rail. Arguably, the U.S. should not have been included on the list at all, as its sole operational high-speed rail service, the Acela on the Northeast corridor, only attains the 150-mile-per-hour speeds that GoEuro ascribes to it on a tiny portion of its route. Still, the basic truth that the U.S. has fallen far behind Asia and Europe is accurately captured here."