--- title: "High-Speed Rail is a Global Disaster: Why the World's Most Promising Transit System Keeps Failing" description: "It's the sort of megaproject that almost everyone can agree is a good idea in theory: clean, efficient, wide-ranging high-speed railways that can connect cities, regions, or even entire countries together. More comfortable, more resilient to bad weather, and far easier on the environment than air travel, high-speed rail has looked like something of a shoo-in for the last couple of centuries: once the technology is available, *of course* people would want to build it.\n\nBut the reality has been far different. From lagging technology to high costs of construction to mountains and mountains of bureaucratic red tape, many high-speed rail proposals around the world have gone from utopian fantasy to political nightmare. In this article, we'll take a close look at the state of high-speed rail, from massive potential to dismal results, to the lingering potential for change on the horizon.\n\n## Valiant Attempts, Resounding Failures\n\nThe first thing to understand about high-speed rail might sound simple, but at times, it's been a concept that's hard for policymakers to grasp: high-speed rail *can* work, and it can work *really well*. In Japan, nine high-speed rail lines connect twenty-two cities across three islands, with almost half a million passengers a day. Their trains reach top speeds of 320 kilometers per hour (200 miles per hour), and in fifty years, they've never had a passenger die or be injured due to a rail accident. Europe has done the same, with France's LGV network, the German Inter-City Express, and well-developed networks in Italy and Spain, with many of these networks being joined together via Europe's Ten-T program.\n\nRight now, China is the world leader in high-speed rail, projected to have 38,000 kilometers of high-speed track by 2025. In their network, a person can travel from Beijing to almost every other major Chinese city in the span of eight hours or less, at speeds sometimes reaching 350 kilometers per hour. China, too, wants to integrate its rail lines to the rest of the world via its Belt and Road Initiative. In China especially, some lines have turned profitable, raking in billions per year. The system works so well, in fact, that many regional flights have ceased to operate, and China's domestic airfares have plummeted. Not a bad deal.\n\nBut around the world, high-speed rail has struggled to reach its potential, and many countries have had a hard time even converting their proposals into a construction effort. Even in China, by example, there's trouble in high-speed-rail paradise; although the Chinese government wants to add thousands of kilometers more rail in the coming decade, they've cut way back on where those new lines can be built, in a reflection that many of their further-flung railways are hemorrhaging money. France, similarly, has grappled with revenue and maintenance issues for its LGV for nearly a decade, and in Germany, the whole system has long suffered with delays because it shares tracks with slower passenger or freight trains. And even in Japan, development of bullet-train infrastructure was a drag on the economy for decades before it truly reached equilibrium.\n\nAround the world, though, the problem is far worse: a long list of countries that either struggle to get approval for high-speed rail projects at all, or watch their best attempts spiral out of control. Take, by example, a planned rail line that was supposed to run between Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. With a projected top speed of 350 kilometers per hour (217 miles per hour), the service was meant to make the journey between the cities in just ninety minutes, with potential to create over a hundred thousand jobs and massive economic growth over time. Not only that, but it was on an extremely busy transit corridor, where 24-hour-a-day bus lines and over eighty flights a day are currently doing the work that the rail line would have. But with a price tag estimated around $17 billion, the project was so tenuously balanced between what both nations could handle that when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Malaysia chose to take the massive economic blow of pulling out of the project entirely, paying compensation to Singapore, rather than seeing it through.\n\nA similar story is taking place in the UK, where a high-speed rail line meant to run from London to Birmingham to Leeds to Manchester had initial projected costs of some fifty-six billion pounds—extremely expensive to start with—but at present, those projected costs have more than doubled. As a result, the plans for a rail line have been markedly curtailed, with large sections of planned track being outright removed from the plan.\n\nAnd in Brazil, a rail line that was supposed to connect Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, a 378-kilometer stretch that the railway would have handled in barely more than an hour, was initially conceived in the mid-2000s with the goal to be open for Brazil's 2014 FIFA World Cup. But as of now, the line is planned to open no sooner than 2032, and in 2022, the Brazilian government quietly retracted its support from the project. At present, work has just been cleared to resume after a change in Brazil's government, but there's no guarantee that that goal of operational status in 2032 will be achievable. A follow-on route between the cities of Belo Horizonte and Curitiba, estimated for a length of over 1,000 kilometers, would serve an economic belt that makes up over half of Brazil's output and population, but it'll only be considered for building when the Rio-Sao Paulo line is complete.\n\nAcross the world in India, the country's vast network of railroads has been badly in need of upgrades for generations, a problem that current Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sought to fix with the *Vande Bharat Express*, a rail line that hopes to connect all northern, western, and southern cities in the country, beginning with a 508-kilometer line between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. But while this rail line is far faster than anything else India has at present, it's also something of a misnomer to even call it high-speed rail; originally intended to operate bullet trains like Japan, and even announced with a cameo from Japanese then-Prime-Minister Shinzo Abe, the rail line now operates at a top speed of just 160 kilometers per hour (99 miles per hour), not enough to even qualify it as the high-speed-rail line it was first meant to be. The initiative has been hit with a long series of construction delays, especially relating to land acquisitions, where the government has had a very hard time securing the places they'd like to build new track. That track does have to be built from scratch, in hopes that they'll eventually run Japanese Shinkansen bullet trains.\n\nAnd lastly, we come to America, the land where high-speed rolling stock becomes a laughingstock. Although the country has one high-speed rail line, the Acela train running between Boston, New York City, and Washington, D.C., it's only got an average practical speed of 66 miles per hour, getting up to 150 miles per hour (240 kilometers per hour) only on select portions of its route. Other planned or considered high-speed railways, in the states of Florida, Texas, and California, have each taken some massive hits for a wide range of political reasons. No other state is even seriously considering high-speed rail at this time, and at present, the US has just fifty-four kilometers of track where high-speed train travel actually occurs. That's barely a third of what's found in the tiny nation of Luxembourg, and roughly one five-hundredth of what China can offer.\n\n## Why All the Trouble?\n\nFor nations that have nailed down their high-speed rail systems, things are looking halfway decent, but across the rest of the world, this sort of infrastructure is struggling to get off the ground. But why is that?\n\nThe first reason, and perhaps the most salient, is just how expensive such a network is to build. Even just building one rail line that can support high-speed travel will typically generate a price tag in the billions—and yes, that's \"billions\" with a B. Building high-speed rail isn't as simple as building an ordinary rail line; just by example, high-speed track generally has to be welded together continuously to reduce the risk of misalignment at extreme speeds; it has to be paired with sturdy and extensive overhead power lines and advanced line switches. Often, new lines have to be built totally from scratch, and when a country's existing rail lines can handle high-speed travel, that's got to be coordinated with a whole, existing schedule of slower passenger and freight traffic. The trains, too, are expensive; they've got to be built aerodynamically, with tilting and other high-velocity turn effects in mind, with advanced engines that you simply wouldn't find on your standard commuter train.\n\nAfter that, there's the question of where to build a rail line—and that brings in a whole lot of external factors. On the one hand, individual cities and municipalities may advocate in favor of having a high-speed rail line in general, but strongly oppose building it in *their* town—the Not-In-My-Back-Yard sort of complaints. With that, come concerns about noise, traffic congestion due to railway crossings, and more, especially in towns that won't be getting their own station; they get all the drawbacks of high-speed rail, and few of the benefits. And in many countries, there's also the issue of land rights. Although most governments can requisition property in order to build rail projects, this is obviously very unpopular with the people who are having their property taken back, meaning that it's often a lot more palatable for a country to just try and negotiate with private landowners. But that, of course, means that those landowners can say no—and even if they say yes, it's for big chunks of cash that further increase the government's price tag for the project. Those payments can also be very slow to arrive, as farmers in both California and the south-Asian country of Laos learned recently, further contributing to public animosity toward the new rail line.\n\nThen, there's the problem of economic viability, something that high-speed rail critics have no shortage of evidence for. Unfortunately, for every booming line like the ones in China, there is an equal and opposite example of a high-speed rail line that overextended its range to service non-profitable lines, found itself unable to generate sufficient revenues, or gotten its prices undercut by the airline industry or even car-sharing services. In practice, these concerns have led even enthusiastic countries to try building rail lines piecemeal, investing a whole lot of time and money into one line, and only signing off to build others if that first line shows that it can be economically sustainable.\n\nIn most cases, high-speed rail lines are not moneymaking ventures in the first place, relying instead on government subsidies to make up the difference between ticket sales and operating costs. When rail lines do make money, it's because they're traveling on booming economic corridors and central arteries. But because *some* lines make money, it's all too easy for detractors of high-speed rail to make profit a requirement. In a best-case scenario, that might lead to one thriving line that's able to support one or two lines that are losing money; at other times, only the thriving line might be built, or the entire project might be cancelled if the claim that a high-speed rail line would thrive at all, can be dismissed as conjecture.\n\nAnd although there's not much money to be made in high-speed rail, there's plenty of corporate revenue that could be lost if quick, affordable rail transport becomes available. That, of course, can only mean one thing: lobbyists. In the United States, a substantial pro-rail lobby does exist, but it's dwarfed by the power of the airline industry. For example, in the US state of Texas, legislators have been after a high-speed rail line since 1989, when they initially sought out a network to connect Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, Houston, and San Antonio—but that network was buried courtesy of Southwest Airlines, who understood that such a railway would make their short-hop flights between those cities unnecessary. In Britain, too, the anti-rail lobby has stoked divisions around high-speed projects, at times becoming the subject of serious controversy. Even in China, various interest groups battle it out to establish when and where rail lines will be built, and who gets to benefit from their construction, making the conversation less about public utility and more about an opportunity for grift.\n\nLastly, there are real concerns that high-speed rail might become obsolete, not long after major lines are completed. Magnetic-levitation trains, or maglev, have become an even faster alternative, and they'll require their own routes and rail lines, meaning that if a country or province wants to spring for a maglev in a decade or two, it doesn't make sense to blow that budget on high-speed rail now. Hyperloop technology poses the same risks, as well—as much as we empathize with the people chuckling at their phones right now because we said the H-word, hyperloop technology is slowly moving toward greater operational feasibility, and considering that the process to build high-speed rail is generally a matter of decades rather than a couple of years, it's not unreasonable to assume that these technologies might be available by then.\n\n## Prospects for Change\n\nWith such a bleak outlook on high-speed rail, it wouldn't be unreasonable to conclude that the whole thing might just never pan out—that Japan and China and continental Europe can have their trains, and everyone else can think of them longingly while sitting in six hours of inter-city traffic. But at the risk of showing a bit of pro-high-speed-rail bias, if it wasn't clear already… there's still hope that these other nations may be able to get their rail initiatives back on track.\n\nThe reality is that high-speed rail does have every bit of potential to be profitable, and with the benefit of a lot of other nations who've already learned by trial and error, a country that does want to turn a profit on its rail lines has a pretty clear road map to doing so. Make sure there are strong, robust connections between major cities; don't go around connecting too many suburbs or small cities to the line just because it sounds nice; and treat the relatively low prices of rail travel, and any attempts by airlines to undercut those prices, as something that actually makes travel more affordable for the people who've got to use it. If a billion-dollar investment into high-speed rail ends up actually being a billion-dollar investment into making, say, regional airlines affordable, that result isn't half-bad, and it presents the nice collateral benefit of being able to slam some doors in lobbyists' faces. And this is all before we point out that when it comes to high-speed rail, profit really isn't the point, no more so than it would be for an interstate freeway system or a canal or a slower railway. The point is to move people and things from place to place, and if a mechanism to do that can also turn a profit, then that's a bonus—not a prerequisite.\n\nAnd the same can't be said for those other technologies we mentioned before—maglev, which has only been used in a couple of countries with limited effect, and hyperloop, where technology will take years if not decades to develop enough that it would be ready for use. Maglevs and hyperloops are highly experimental, they'll probably be very expensive for quite a while, and relative to high-speed rail, there's a lot of uncertainty about maglev and hyperloop safety and operating potential. With high-speed rail, you know what you're getting: a dependable, highly efficient, safe piece of tech, where costs are low enough to be feasible and all the requisite bells and whistles have already been developed.\n\nLastly, there's the sobering reality that as time goes on, more and more methods of transportation will need to be overhauled or replaced completely for environmental reasons. High-speed rail pushes out far lower levels of greenhouse gases than road transport, and even less when compared to air travel, while also being a lot quicker than driving, and faster even than flying for short-distance travel, when you factor in getting to and from an airport and spending time in a terminal. A robust rail system also reduces the demand for future oil and fuel production, and it's far easier to modify a rail line to use newer, even more efficient technologies, than it is to upgrade or replace cars or airplanes.\n\nIt's critical to remember that even in nations that have struggled with high-speed rail, the idea is a winning issue among the ordinary people who might one day use that service. In the United States, a 2022 study by the Rail Passengers Association found that nearly four out of five people supported more robust investments in high-speed rail, support that was strong across Democrats, Republicans, men, women, all ages, all socioeconomic groups, and in both rural and urban communities—and if you can find any issue in America that gets better consensus than that, then you're niche presidential candidate Vermin Supreme promising free ponies for everybody. In the UK, more than half of voters opposed the specific, struggling rail line currently being built, but the idea of other, hypothetically well-executed rail lines is received much more favorably. And in an already-contentious election cycle, the Brazilian government's decision to pull support from their high-speed rail line was reversed just a year after it was made. These sorts of projects are especially popular among young people, who are in the process of breaking into legislatures and public offices all over the world—and the choices they make on this issue might be very different than those of their forefathers.\n\nSo as embattled as high-speed rail might be—and embattled, it most definitely is—there are reasons to be cautiously optimistic that across the slow march of infrastructure development, it'll be a winning investment. Certainly, the data is out there; the world now knows what works, and what doesn't work, where high-speed rail is concerned. As for whether the world listens, or acts accordingly… we'll just have to find out.\n\n## Key Takeaways\n\n- High-speed rail is theoretically beneficial but faces significant real-world challenges.\n- Japan, China, and parts of Europe have successful high-speed rail systems.\n- Many countries struggle with high-speed rail due to high costs, bureaucratic hurdles, and economic viability concerns.\n- Lobbying from airlines and other industries often hinders high-speed rail development.\n- Despite challenges, high-speed rail remains popular among the public and has environmental benefits.\n\n## Frequently Asked Questions\n\n### Which countries have successful high-speed rail systems?\n\nJapan, China, and several European countries like France, Germany, Italy, and Spain have successful high-speed rail systems.\n\n### What are some of the challenges faced by high-speed rail projects?\n\nChallenges include high construction costs, bureaucratic red tape, land acquisition issues, economic viability concerns, and opposition from lobbyists.\n\n### What is the current status of high-speed rail in the United States?\n\nThe U.S. has one high-speed rail line, the Acela, with limited high-speed sections. Other planned projects in Florida, Texas, and California have faced significant political and financial hurdles.\n\n### Why is high-speed rail considered environmentally friendly?\n\nHigh-speed rail produces lower levels of greenhouse gases compared to road transport and air travel, and it reduces the demand for future oil and fuel production.\n\n### What is the public opinion on high-speed rail in the United States?\n\nA 2022 study by the Rail Passengers Association found that nearly four out of five Americans support increased investments in high-speed rail.\n\n### What are some of the economic concerns related to high-speed rail?\n\nEconomic concerns include the high cost of construction, the need for government subsidies, and the risk of lines becoming unprofitable if they overextend their range.\n\n### What are the potential alternatives to high-speed rail?\n\nAlternatives include magnetic-levitation (maglev) trains and hyperloop technology, but these are still experimental and may take decades to develop.\n\n### What is the status of high-speed rail in Brazil?\n\nBrazil has plans for high-speed rail lines between Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, and between Belo Horizonte and Curitiba, but these projects have faced delays and lack of government support.\n\n### How does high-speed rail compare to other modes of transportation?\n\nHigh-speed rail is more comfortable, resilient to bad weather, and easier on the environment than air travel. It is also faster than driving for short-distance travel.\n\n### What are some of the reasons for the failure of high-speed rail projects?\n\nReasons include high costs, bureaucratic issues, land acquisition problems, economic viability concerns, and opposition from lobbyists representing other transportation industries.\n\n## Sources\n\n- [Original MegaProjects video: High-Speed Rail is a Global Disaster...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A45UNL916pA)\n- [https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/fact-sheet-high-speed-rail-development-worldwide](https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/fact-sheet-high-speed-rail-development-worldwide)\n- [https://www.iamexpat.de/expat-info/german-expat-news/problem-germanys-high-speed-rail-network#:~:text=The%20high%2Dspeed%20rail%20network%20in%20Germany%20was%20integrated%20into,which%20often%20leads%20to%20delays](https://www.iamexpat.de/expat-info/german-expat-news/problem-germanys-high-speed-rail-network#:~:text=The%20high%2Dspeed%20rail%20network%20in%20Germany%20was%20integrated%20into,which%20often%20leads%20to%20delays)\n- [https://www.cato.org/blog/lesson-japans-high-speed-trains](https://www.cato.org/blog/lesson-japans-high-speed-trains)\n- [https://www.bbc.com/news/business-55624103](https://www.bbc.com/news/business-55624103)\n- [https://www.riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/brazil/brazil-ready-to-put-rio-sao-paulo-high-speed-train-in-private-hands/](https://www.riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/brazil/brazil-ready-to-put-rio-sao-paulo-high-speed-train-in-private-hands/)\n- [https://www.railwaygazette.com/high-speed/rio-sao-paulo-high-speed-line-planning-to-restart/63651.article](https://www.railwaygazette.com/high-speed/rio-sao-paulo-high-speed-line-planning-to-restart/63651.article)\n- [https://www.reuters.com/world/india/modi-launches-india-made-high-speed-train-modernisation-drive-2022-09-30/](https://www.reuters.com/world/india/modi-launches-india-made-high-speed-train-modernisation-drive-2022-09-30/)\n- [https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/india-high-speed-rail-cmd/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/india-high-speed-rail-cmd/index.html)\n- [https://railpassengers.org/happening-now/news/releases/new-poll-78-of-americans-want-increased-investments-in-passenger-rail-in-the-u.s/](https://railpassengers.org/happening-now/news/releases/new-poll-78-of-americans-want-increased-investments-in-passenger-rail-in-the-u.s/)\n- [https://www.statista.com/statistics/1165985/public-opinion-on-the-uk-hs2-high-speed-rail-project/](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1165985/public-opinion-on-the-uk-hs2-high-speed-rail-project/)\n- [https://www.vox.com/2021/3/10/22303355/gen-z-high-speed-rail-biden-map-meme-buttigieg](https://www.vox.com/2021/3/10/22303355/gen-z-high-speed-rail-biden-map-meme-buttigieg)\n- [https://blogs.worldbank.org/transport/should-countries-invest-high-speed-rail](https://blogs.worldbank.org/transport/should-countries-invest-high-speed-rail)\n- [https://scholar.smu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1383&context=jalc](https://scholar.smu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1383&context=jalc)\n- [https://www.engineering.com/story/the-rest-of-the-industrialized-world-has-high-speed-rail-why-cant-the-us](https://www.engineering.com/story/the-rest-of-the-industrialized-world-has-high-speed-rail-why-cant-the-us)\n- [https://hsr.ca.gov/programs/private-property/](https://hsr.ca.gov/programs/private-property/)\n- [https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-bullet-train-cash-20190610-story.html](https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-bullet-train-cash-20190610-story.html)\n- [https://reason.org/commentary/why-california-cant-compare-with-china-on-high-speed-rail/](https://reason.org/commentary/why-california-cant-compare-with-china-on-high-speed-rail/)\n- [https://www.rfa.org/english/news/laos/land-10052021172730.html](https://www.rfa.org/english/news/laos/land-10052021172730.html)\n- [https://www.business-live.co.uk/economic-development/centro-boss-hits-back-anti-hs2-3922674](https://www.business-live.co.uk/economic-development/centro-boss-hits-back-anti-hs2-3922674)\n- [https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1010572](https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1010572)\n- [https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-plot-against-trains](https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-plot-against-trains)\n- [https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=a345afcf-f50c-4ffa-8cda-58c2a526d56e](https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=a345afcf-f50c-4ffa-8cda-58c2a526d56e)\n- [https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/high-speed-rail-us/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/high-speed-rail-us/index.html)\n- [https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/ex/sustainablecitiescollective/five-best-high-speed-rail-networks-world/164916/](https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/ex/sustainablecitiescollective/five-best-high-speed-rail-networks-world/164916/)\n- [https://www.travelandleisure.com/trip-ideas/bus-train/fastest-trains-in-the-world](https://www.travelandleisure.com/trip-ideas/bus-train/fastest-trains-in-the-world)\n- [Hero image source](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/The_G20_Leaders_-_Caricatures_%28update_11-16-2015%29_%2822648503257%29.jpg) by DonkeyHotey / openverse, by-sa.\n\n## Related Coverage" url: https://megaprojects.pub/article/high-speed-rail-global-disaster.md canonical: https://megaprojects.pub/article/high-speed-rail-global-disaster datePublished: 2026-07-02 dateModified: 2026-07-02 author: - name: Simon Whistler url: https://megaprojects.pub/author/simon-whistler publisher: MegaProjects image: "https://media.megaprojects.pub/cdn-cgi/image/width=600,height=338,fit=cover,quality=80,format=auto/articles/A45UNL916pA/hero.jpg" type: NewsArticle contentHash: 15bf8988435e709168d514ff44d20b4ed584f16f2727253492ad0a8192c4a832 tokens: 6556 summaryUrl: https://megaprojects.pub/article/high-speed-rail-global-disaster.md.summary.md --- It's the sort of megaproject that almost everyone can agree is a good idea in theory: clean, efficient, wide-ranging high-speed railways that can connect cities, regions, or even entire countries together. More comfortable, more resilient to bad weather, and far easier on the environment than air travel, high-speed rail has looked like something of a shoo-in for the last couple of centuries: once the technology is available, *of course* people would want to build it. But the reality has been far different. From lagging technology to high costs of construction to mountains and mountains of bureaucratic red tape, many high-speed rail proposals around the world have gone from utopian fantasy to political nightmare. In this article, we'll take a close look at the state of high-speed rail, from massive potential to dismal results, to the lingering potential for change on the horizon. ## Valiant Attempts, Resounding Failures The first thing to understand about high-speed rail might sound simple, but at times, it's been a concept that's hard for policymakers to grasp: high-speed rail *can* work, and it can work *really well*. In Japan, nine high-speed rail lines connect twenty-two cities across three islands, with almost half a million passengers a day. Their trains reach top speeds of 320 kilometers per hour (200 miles per hour), and in fifty years, they've never had a passenger die or be injured due to a rail accident. Europe has done the same, with France's LGV network, the German Inter-City Express, and well-developed networks in Italy and Spain, with many of these networks being joined together via Europe's Ten-T program. Right now, China is the world leader in high-speed rail, projected to have 38,000 kilometers of high-speed track by 2025. In their network, a person can travel from Beijing to almost every other major Chinese city in the span of eight hours or less, at speeds sometimes reaching 350 kilometers per hour. China, too, wants to integrate its rail lines to the rest of the world via its Belt and Road Initiative. In China especially, some lines have turned profitable, raking in billions per year. The system works so well, in fact, that many regional flights have ceased to operate, and China's domestic airfares have plummeted. Not a bad deal. But around the world, high-speed rail has struggled to reach its potential, and many countries have had a hard time even converting their proposals into a construction effort. Even in China, by example, there's trouble in high-speed-rail paradise; although the Chinese government wants to add thousands of kilometers more rail in the coming decade, they've cut way back on where those new lines can be built, in a reflection that many of their further-flung railways are hemorrhaging money. France, similarly, has grappled with revenue and maintenance issues for its LGV for nearly a decade, and in Germany, the whole system has long suffered with delays because it shares tracks with slower passenger or freight trains. And even in Japan, development of bullet-train infrastructure was a drag on the economy for decades before it truly reached equilibrium. Around the world, though, the problem is far worse: a long list of countries that either struggle to get approval for high-speed rail projects at all, or watch their best attempts spiral out of control. Take, by example, a planned rail line that was supposed to run between Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. With a projected top speed of 350 kilometers per hour (217 miles per hour), the service was meant to make the journey between the cities in just ninety minutes, with potential to create over a hundred thousand jobs and massive economic growth over time. Not only that, but it was on an extremely busy transit corridor, where 24-hour-a-day bus lines and over eighty flights a day are currently doing the work that the rail line would have. But with a price tag estimated around $17 billion, the project was so tenuously balanced between what both nations could handle that when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Malaysia chose to take the massive economic blow of pulling out of the project entirely, paying compensation to Singapore, rather than seeing it through. A similar story is taking place in the UK, where a high-speed rail line meant to run from London to Birmingham to Leeds to Manchester had initial projected costs of some fifty-six billion pounds—extremely expensive to start with—but at present, those projected costs have more than doubled. As a result, the plans for a rail line have been markedly curtailed, with large sections of planned track being outright removed from the plan. And in Brazil, a rail line that was supposed to connect Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, a 378-kilometer stretch that the railway would have handled in barely more than an hour, was initially conceived in the mid-2000s with the goal to be open for Brazil's 2014 FIFA World Cup. But as of now, the line is planned to open no sooner than 2032, and in 2022, the Brazilian government quietly retracted its support from the project. At present, work has just been cleared to resume after a change in Brazil's government, but there's no guarantee that that goal of operational status in 2032 will be achievable. A follow-on route between the cities of Belo Horizonte and Curitiba, estimated for a length of over 1,000 kilometers, would serve an economic belt that makes up over half of Brazil's output and population, but it'll only be considered for building when the Rio-Sao Paulo line is complete. Across the world in India, the country's vast network of railroads has been badly in need of upgrades for generations, a problem that current Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sought to fix with the *Vande Bharat Express*, a rail line that hopes to connect all northern, western, and southern cities in the country, beginning with a 508-kilometer line between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. But while this rail line is far faster than anything else India has at present, it's also something of a misnomer to even call it high-speed rail; originally intended to operate bullet trains like Japan, and even announced with a cameo from Japanese then-Prime-Minister Shinzo Abe, the rail line now operates at a top speed of just 160 kilometers per hour (99 miles per hour), not enough to even qualify it as the high-speed-rail line it was first meant to be. The initiative has been hit with a long series of construction delays, especially relating to land acquisitions, where the government has had a very hard time securing the places they'd like to build new track. That track does have to be built from scratch, in hopes that they'll eventually run Japanese Shinkansen bullet trains. And lastly, we come to America, the land where high-speed rolling stock becomes a laughingstock. Although the country has one high-speed rail line, the Acela train running between Boston, New York City, and Washington, D.C., it's only got an average practical speed of 66 miles per hour, getting up to 150 miles per hour (240 kilometers per hour) only on select portions of its route. Other planned or considered high-speed railways, in the states of Florida, Texas, and California, have each taken some massive hits for a wide range of political reasons. No other state is even seriously considering high-speed rail at this time, and at present, the US has just fifty-four kilometers of track where high-speed train travel actually occurs. That's barely a third of what's found in the tiny nation of Luxembourg, and roughly one five-hundredth of what China can offer. ## Why All the Trouble? For nations that have nailed down their high-speed rail systems, things are looking halfway decent, but across the rest of the world, this sort of infrastructure is struggling to get off the ground. But why is that? The first reason, and perhaps the most salient, is just how expensive such a network is to build. Even just building one rail line that can support high-speed travel will typically generate a price tag in the billions—and yes, that's "billions" with a B. Building high-speed rail isn't as simple as building an ordinary rail line; just by example, high-speed track generally has to be welded together continuously to reduce the risk of misalignment at extreme speeds; it has to be paired with sturdy and extensive overhead power lines and advanced line switches. Often, new lines have to be built totally from scratch, and when a country's existing rail lines can handle high-speed travel, that's got to be coordinated with a whole, existing schedule of slower passenger and freight traffic. The trains, too, are expensive; they've got to be built aerodynamically, with tilting and other high-velocity turn effects in mind, with advanced engines that you simply wouldn't find on your standard commuter train. After that, there's the question of where to build a rail line—and that brings in a whole lot of external factors. On the one hand, individual cities and municipalities may advocate in favor of having a high-speed rail line in general, but strongly oppose building it in *their* town—the Not-In-My-Back-Yard sort of complaints. With that, come concerns about noise, traffic congestion due to railway crossings, and more, especially in towns that won't be getting their own station; they get all the drawbacks of high-speed rail, and few of the benefits. And in many countries, there's also the issue of land rights. Although most governments can requisition property in order to build rail projects, this is obviously very unpopular with the people who are having their property taken back, meaning that it's often a lot more palatable for a country to just try and negotiate with private landowners. But that, of course, means that those landowners can say no—and even if they say yes, it's for big chunks of cash that further increase the government's price tag for the project. Those payments can also be very slow to arrive, as farmers in both California and the south-Asian country of Laos learned recently, further contributing to public animosity toward the new rail line. Then, there's the problem of economic viability, something that high-speed rail critics have no shortage of evidence for. Unfortunately, for every booming line like the ones in China, there is an equal and opposite example of a high-speed rail line that overextended its range to service non-profitable lines, found itself unable to generate sufficient revenues, or gotten its prices undercut by the airline industry or even car-sharing services. In practice, these concerns have led even enthusiastic countries to try building rail lines piecemeal, investing a whole lot of time and money into one line, and only signing off to build others if that first line shows that it can be economically sustainable. In most cases, high-speed rail lines are not moneymaking ventures in the first place, relying instead on government subsidies to make up the difference between ticket sales and operating costs. When rail lines do make money, it's because they're traveling on booming economic corridors and central arteries. But because *some* lines make money, it's all too easy for detractors of high-speed rail to make profit a requirement. In a best-case scenario, that might lead to one thriving line that's able to support one or two lines that are losing money; at other times, only the thriving line might be built, or the entire project might be cancelled if the claim that a high-speed rail line would thrive at all, can be dismissed as conjecture. And although there's not much money to be made in high-speed rail, there's plenty of corporate revenue that could be lost if quick, affordable rail transport becomes available. That, of course, can only mean one thing: lobbyists. In the United States, a substantial pro-rail lobby does exist, but it's dwarfed by the power of the airline industry. For example, in the US state of Texas, legislators have been after a high-speed rail line since 1989, when they initially sought out a network to connect Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, Houston, and San Antonio—but that network was buried courtesy of Southwest Airlines, who understood that such a railway would make their short-hop flights between those cities unnecessary. In Britain, too, the anti-rail lobby has stoked divisions around high-speed projects, at times becoming the subject of serious controversy. Even in China, various interest groups battle it out to establish when and where rail lines will be built, and who gets to benefit from their construction, making the conversation less about public utility and more about an opportunity for grift. Lastly, there are real concerns that high-speed rail might become obsolete, not long after major lines are completed. Magnetic-levitation trains, or maglev, have become an even faster alternative, and they'll require their own routes and rail lines, meaning that if a country or province wants to spring for a maglev in a decade or two, it doesn't make sense to blow that budget on high-speed rail now. Hyperloop technology poses the same risks, as well—as much as we empathize with the people chuckling at their phones right now because we said the H-word, hyperloop technology is slowly moving toward greater operational feasibility, and considering that the process to build high-speed rail is generally a matter of decades rather than a couple of years, it's not unreasonable to assume that these technologies might be available by then. ## Prospects for Change With such a bleak outlook on high-speed rail, it wouldn't be unreasonable to conclude that the whole thing might just never pan out—that Japan and China and continental Europe can have their trains, and everyone else can think of them longingly while sitting in six hours of inter-city traffic. But at the risk of showing a bit of pro-high-speed-rail bias, if it wasn't clear already… there's still hope that these other nations may be able to get their rail initiatives back on track. The reality is that high-speed rail does have every bit of potential to be profitable, and with the benefit of a lot of other nations who've already learned by trial and error, a country that does want to turn a profit on its rail lines has a pretty clear road map to doing so. Make sure there are strong, robust connections between major cities; don't go around connecting too many suburbs or small cities to the line just because it sounds nice; and treat the relatively low prices of rail travel, and any attempts by airlines to undercut those prices, as something that actually makes travel more affordable for the people who've got to use it. If a billion-dollar investment into high-speed rail ends up actually being a billion-dollar investment into making, say, regional airlines affordable, that result isn't half-bad, and it presents the nice collateral benefit of being able to slam some doors in lobbyists' faces. And this is all before we point out that when it comes to high-speed rail, profit really isn't the point, no more so than it would be for an interstate freeway system or a canal or a slower railway. The point is to move people and things from place to place, and if a mechanism to do that can also turn a profit, then that's a bonus—not a prerequisite. And the same can't be said for those other technologies we mentioned before—maglev, which has only been used in a couple of countries with limited effect, and hyperloop, where technology will take years if not decades to develop enough that it would be ready for use. Maglevs and hyperloops are highly experimental, they'll probably be very expensive for quite a while, and relative to high-speed rail, there's a lot of uncertainty about maglev and hyperloop safety and operating potential. With high-speed rail, you know what you're getting: a dependable, highly efficient, safe piece of tech, where costs are low enough to be feasible and all the requisite bells and whistles have already been developed. Lastly, there's the sobering reality that as time goes on, more and more methods of transportation will need to be overhauled or replaced completely for environmental reasons. High-speed rail pushes out far lower levels of greenhouse gases than road transport, and even less when compared to air travel, while also being a lot quicker than driving, and faster even than flying for short-distance travel, when you factor in getting to and from an airport and spending time in a terminal. A robust rail system also reduces the demand for future oil and fuel production, and it's far easier to modify a rail line to use newer, even more efficient technologies, than it is to upgrade or replace cars or airplanes. It's critical to remember that even in nations that have struggled with high-speed rail, the idea is a winning issue among the ordinary people who might one day use that service. In the United States, a 2022 study by the Rail Passengers Association found that nearly four out of five people supported more robust investments in high-speed rail, support that was strong across Democrats, Republicans, men, women, all ages, all socioeconomic groups, and in both rural and urban communities—and if you can find any issue in America that gets better consensus than that, then you're niche presidential candidate Vermin Supreme promising free ponies for everybody. In the UK, more than half of voters opposed the specific, struggling rail line currently being built, but the idea of other, hypothetically well-executed rail lines is received much more favorably. And in an already-contentious election cycle, the Brazilian government's decision to pull support from their high-speed rail line was reversed just a year after it was made. These sorts of projects are especially popular among young people, who are in the process of breaking into legislatures and public offices all over the world—and the choices they make on this issue might be very different than those of their forefathers. So as embattled as high-speed rail might be—and embattled, it most definitely is—there are reasons to be cautiously optimistic that across the slow march of infrastructure development, it'll be a winning investment. Certainly, the data is out there; the world now knows what works, and what doesn't work, where high-speed rail is concerned. As for whether the world listens, or acts accordingly… we'll just have to find out. ## Key Takeaways - High-speed rail is theoretically beneficial but faces significant real-world challenges. - Japan, China, and parts of Europe have successful high-speed rail systems. - Many countries struggle with high-speed rail due to high costs, bureaucratic hurdles, and economic viability concerns. - Lobbying from airlines and other industries often hinders high-speed rail development. - Despite challenges, high-speed rail remains popular among the public and has environmental benefits. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Which countries have successful high-speed rail systems? Japan, China, and several European countries like France, Germany, Italy, and Spain have successful high-speed rail systems. ### What are some of the challenges faced by high-speed rail projects? Challenges include high construction costs, bureaucratic red tape, land acquisition issues, economic viability concerns, and opposition from lobbyists. ### What is the current status of high-speed rail in the United States? The U.S. has one high-speed rail line, the Acela, with limited high-speed sections. Other planned projects in Florida, Texas, and California have faced significant political and financial hurdles. ### Why is high-speed rail considered environmentally friendly? High-speed rail produces lower levels of greenhouse gases compared to road transport and air travel, and it reduces the demand for future oil and fuel production. ### What is the public opinion on high-speed rail in the United States? A 2022 study by the Rail Passengers Association found that nearly four out of five Americans support increased investments in high-speed rail. ### What are some of the economic concerns related to high-speed rail? Economic concerns include the high cost of construction, the need for government subsidies, and the risk of lines becoming unprofitable if they overextend their range. ### What are the potential alternatives to high-speed rail? Alternatives include magnetic-levitation (maglev) trains and hyperloop technology, but these are still experimental and may take decades to develop. ### What is the status of high-speed rail in Brazil? Brazil has plans for high-speed rail lines between Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, and between Belo Horizonte and Curitiba, but these projects have faced delays and lack of government support. ### How does high-speed rail compare to other modes of transportation? High-speed rail is more comfortable, resilient to bad weather, and easier on the environment than air travel. It is also faster than driving for short-distance travel. ### What are some of the reasons for the failure of high-speed rail projects? Reasons include high costs, bureaucratic issues, land acquisition problems, economic viability concerns, and opposition from lobbyists representing other transportation industries. ## Sources - [Original MegaProjects video: High-Speed Rail is a Global Disaster...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A45UNL916pA) - [https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/fact-sheet-high-speed-rail-development-worldwide](https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/fact-sheet-high-speed-rail-development-worldwide) - [https://www.iamexpat.de/expat-info/german-expat-news/problem-germanys-high-speed-rail-network#:~:text=The%20high%2Dspeed%20rail%20network%20in%20Germany%20was%20integrated%20into,which%20often%20leads%20to%20delays](https://www.iamexpat.de/expat-info/german-expat-news/problem-germanys-high-speed-rail-network#:~:text=The%20high%2Dspeed%20rail%20network%20in%20Germany%20was%20integrated%20into,which%20often%20leads%20to%20delays) - [https://www.cato.org/blog/lesson-japans-high-speed-trains](https://www.cato.org/blog/lesson-japans-high-speed-trains) - 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[https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/high-speed-rail-us/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/high-speed-rail-us/index.html) - [https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/ex/sustainablecitiescollective/five-best-high-speed-rail-networks-world/164916/](https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/ex/sustainablecitiescollective/five-best-high-speed-rail-networks-world/164916/) - [https://www.travelandleisure.com/trip-ideas/bus-train/fastest-trains-in-the-world](https://www.travelandleisure.com/trip-ideas/bus-train/fastest-trains-in-the-world) - [Hero image source](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/The_G20_Leaders_-_Caricatures_%28update_11-16-2015%29_%2822648503257%29.jpg) by DonkeyHotey / openverse, by-sa. ## Related Coverage