bullet trains, high-speed rail connects major cities in Europe, South Korea, Taiwan and especially China, which has a sprawling 26,000-mile system. Other regions are embracing it as well: trains race across Morocco, the Saudi Arabian desert and a high-speed line spanning Indonesia’s Java island opens in June. The one major outlier? The United States, where travelers are stuck with cramped, crowded airplanes and congested freeways as fast, futuristic trains rolled into country after country.
Proposed railways in other parts of the country, such as a Portland-Seattle-Vancouver line and a Dallas-Fort Worth-Houston high-speed train, are at earlier development stages and likely seeking federal grants to accelerate engineering and planning rather than construction.
So far, state funds have paid 85% of the initial costs, with federal dollars covering the remaining 15%, Kelly said. “And 85-15 in favor of the state is not the usual recipe for advancing a project of this magnitude.” California's high-speed rail system is under construction in the Central Valley, but needs tens of billions of dollars to connect to San Francisco and Los Angeles.Both California and Brightline intend to power their trains with vast amounts of solar, wind and other forms of renewable electricity, making them vastly cleaner than flying or driving. Investor Edens’ has even boasted that his Brightline West project will be the world’s greenest high-speed line.
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