Japan started building its 1,250-mile high speed passenger rail system during the 1960s. In recent years, Europe has caught up, extending and expanding high speed connections between major cities. And China moves rapidly forward with completing the largest high speed network in the world—more than 10,000 miles--by the end of the decade. In contrast, U.S. transportation officials struggle to kick start any projects as skepticism grows about cost and viability.

Despite a burst of planning activity bankrolled by a $10 billion stimulus boost, U.S. rail initiatives, involving proposals for 11 high speed regional corridors across the country, have faltered and appear to go nowhere fast:

• Governors in Florida, Ohio and Wisconsin spurned projects, concerned about their budget-busting potential,
• California drew scorn over a plan to build its first multi-billion dollar section of track in a low-use corridor, which wouldn’t be operational until later sections are built,
• Critics gained ground with arguments about whether trains could operate without significant subsidies that states ultimately cannot afford
• And even some advocates concede the federal government should regroup and focus initial investment on lines that offer the greatest economic returns, short-circuiting spending on potentially low ridership corridors.

In rebuilding after World War II, Japan wisely placed its bets on engineering multi-modal transportation platforms—high-speed rail, transit systems, and highways—to move its densely-packed population in and out of major urban centers. European countries retained their hub and spoke rail systems serving large cities, providing the bones for later HSR lines. Relatively short distances between Euro urban centers also made train travel an attractive alternative to motorway congestion or airport hassles.

At the same time, U.S. transport planners concentrated transportation strategies on interstates (cars) and airports (planes)—inter-urban passenger rail service was substantially curtailed during the 1950s and 1960s and only a handful of cities retained commuter rail lines. California’s once expansive passenger train network was dismantled in favor of vaunted freeway systems. As a result, not only has train travel become an alien transport mode in most parts of the U.S., but also new high speed rail corridors would need to carve through heavily developed suburban districts at significant cost, potentially dislocating people from homes and businesses in contentious not-in-my-backyard battles. Since most American cities do not have adequate mass transit to integrate into proposed inter-city rail lines, passengers would still need to drive cars to access trains and do business once they arrived at destinations. That’s a major drawback to HSR: You must tie trains into transit systems in a seamless door-to door system-- otherwise people may not be inclined to use them.