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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Environment
Oliver Milman

‘The time is right’ for US to catch up on high-speed rail, says British Amtrak exec

a bullet train passes through a city
A Tokaido Shinkansen high-speed bullet train passes through Tokyo on 21 January 2024. Photograph: Philip Fong/AFP/Getty Images

After years of dashed hopes, delays and the all-consuming dominance of the car and airplane, high-speed trains may finally be about to have their breakthrough moment in the United States, according to one of the country’s top rail executives.

Half a dozen high-speed rail projects across the US are currently planned or have already started construction, with a gush of federal infrastructure dollars, a supportive White House, and rising angst over snarled highways and the climate crisis all helping bring the prospect of bullet trains, belatedly, closer than ever before to the American public.

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