Originally Posted by
kebosabi
While the US is a big country, that doesn't mean we have to link Seattle to Miami or LA to NY with high speed rail. At those distances it's far better to fly than take the train. Case in point: does it really make sense to take the train from Madrid to Moscow or from London to Istanbul? I mean it could be done, but it's probably faster to fly at that point.
Europe and the US (and Australia) are all roughly the same size. Some tourists may just know the bits between London, Paris and Heidelburg (sic!) and think of it as a rather small place.
It's just that our flyover states aren't in the middle but way out east.
JFK-LAX 2475mi
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LIS-SME 2437mi
DUB-SVX 2564mi
BOS-MIA 1258 mi
SAN-SEA 1050mi
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HFT-MLA 2432mi
And nobody would want to build a high speed rail link between any of them. Although it is definitely possible to get from LIS to MOW by rail - if you have lots of time.