High-speed trains, popularly known as bullet trains, are present in several developed countries. In Japan, this means of transport began operating more than 60 years ago with the implementation of the line between Tokyo and Osaka.

Japanese trains reach speeds of up to 300 kilometres per hour, as do several European countries such as Italy, France, Germany and Spain, which have an extensive network of high-speed trains that can reach speeds of up to 250 kilometres per hour. In China, too, there are bullet points; in the last few decades alone, the Asian giant has built approximately 30,000 km of high-speed railways. On the other hand, the United States has only one line where trains exceed 200 km per hour, namely the line linking the capital Washington to Boston, but the train only reaches a maximum speed of 240 km per hour on a short stretch of 55 km out of a total of 735 km.

But why does the United States not have a network of high-speed trains even though it can afford them?

And why did the attempt to deploy a bullet train in California fail?

Could private initiative reverse this situation?

To know these answers Read this article until the end because today we are going to broaden our knowledge about the United States and its rail transport system.

The Railway System in the United States

The railway system was once the main means of passenger transport in the United States, it played an important role in the American movement and helped create real fortunes, but from the 1950s onwards trains began to suffer strong competition from cars and the airline sector, and began to be less and less used, entering into decline.

To preserve the train services, the American government created the state-owned company Amtrak, which operates until today and only survives thanks to government subsidies. There are many railroads on American soil, however, only the line connecting Washington and Boston has the possibility of being profitable, the other lines would disappear without the help of the state company.

Population Concentration

The main reason for the lack of profitability of the Railways is the distribution of the population over the American territory. The United States concentrates most of its population on the Atlantic, the Pacific coast concentrates another important part and the central region has low population density, which explains the difficulty between profitable lines.

With low demand in the cities of the central region, making the connection only between the main cities of each coast becomes very expensive and also time consuming, to have an idea a trip between New York and Los Angeles by Amtrak train can cost $399 and take more than 70 hours, for almost the same price is possible to do the same journey by plane, but in less than 5 hours. These difficulties are practically the same as those faced by China, which as we have already mentioned, in the last two decades alone has built approximately 30,000 km of high speed train lines.

But why can China do it and the US can’t?

The main difference is that in China the state owns everything, including the land, so it can determine where a train line passes and remove all those who occupy certain spaces. In the United States, however, the properties are private and to do any work on land it is necessary to buy it or even respect the owner’s decision not to sell. This difference alone represents a big saving in the construction costs of the railways, but it is also necessary to take into account the cost of labour which is much cheaper in China, as well as the high concentration of the population in only one part of its territory.

Cultural Issues

We are talking about the country with the highest number of cars for every 1000 inhabitants, there are 850 cars for every 1000 Americans, a rate that only very rich microstates like Monaco can surpass.

The car is part of the American’s daily life and is used both for leisure and to overcome long distances due to the inefficiency of public transportation. A good part of the day-to-day life of an American citizen is spent in a car, but even so some surveys indicate that an important part of the population would be willing to exchange the car for high speed trains for long trips.

A Project in California

One project in particular managed to win the votes of the American citizens of the state of California. In 2008 the voters of the state approved the construction of a high-speed train line connecting the state from North to South. The condition imposed by the citizens was that the train was enough, i.e. it could not depend on public resources for its operation. It could be the beginning of a new era in North American Rail transport, but the country is not immune to political interests. With an eye on electoral dividends, politicians began to press for the train line to pass through territories where they have their electoral bases even if these places did not present any passenger demand that would justify changing the route.

What would be the cost of this project?

For the execution of the project the California High Speed Rail Authority was formed. This entity made yet another mistake that could cost the execution of the project, the works began even before all the necessary land was purchased. With the refusal of some landowners to sell their land for the construction of the railway, the project had to go through several changes that made the project more expensive by 44 Billion Dollars.

Political Conflicts

The project then began to have an uncertain future and according to some estimates the change in the route may generate an annual cost of over $ 100 million in operations, which would make the operation of the train unfeasible because the project approved by the population does not allow government subsidies. In 2019 President Donald Trump withdrew a grant of 929 Million Dollars intended for the project, which made it even more difficult to continue the works, which resulted in a legal fight between the state and federal governments.

The confusion generated in this project will serve as an example for other developments in the country. The line that intends to connect Southern California with the city of Las Vegas is being built entirely with private initiative money. This way it is possible to prevent political interests from changing the original route. Another point to be considered is that being all built and operated by private enterprise, the incentives and charges for the works to last as little as possible are much higher, after all the investors want to recover their money in the shortest possible time.

This line between Las Vegas and Los Angeles could point the way for the United States to develop its high-speed train lines. The project is currently being led by the investment fund Fortress Investment Group, which is betting on a particularity for the project to succeed. The two cities are a long distance to travel by car and a short distance to travel by plane.

How long between Las Vegas and Los Angeles?

By car or commute would last 5 hours over winding roads and while by plane, only 1 hour, however as the additional times involved in an air journey, the total journey by plane could be up to 4 hours. This data puts a high-speed train at an advantage as it could be a much shorter total travel time. The company that is executing this project already has experience in the industry and nowadays operates the only private intercity train line in the entire United States.

Joe Biden And A New Project

With the election of Joe Biden to the White House, the Californian project is back on the agenda. The president, who is known to be a staunch defender of the rail sector, has released the funds blocked by his predecessor and in his campaign promised to invest up to 2 billion dollars to improve the sector’s infrastructure.

After his victory, the project that intends to connect the city of New York to the city of Boston by means of a high speed train line gained strength. This new train line would reduce the travel time to just one hour and a half, but there are still several negative aspects for the advancement of the project, the construction should take around 20 years. It will be necessary to build an underwater tunnel and the project may also undergo changes due to political will, not to mention the possibility of the emergence or implementation of new transport systems such as the hyperloop that may occur during the works.

The cost of 105 million dollars is also an obstacle for the project to get off the paper. If we look at it this way it seems that the United States will continue for a long time to be part of the club of rich countries that do not have a high speed train network.

And now it’s your turn, did you know that in the United States there is a state-owned company that controls the Passenger Rail Sector?

Do you believe that the state should be the main investor, executor and operator of the high speed trains, or do you think that everything should be left to the private sector? Leave your opinion in the comments and enrich the debate!