Why can't french TGV rail technology be applied to the US on city to city transit?

Question

Why can't french TGV rail technology be applied to the US on city to city transit?

Answer 1

Politics and money.

There are only 2 priorities in the Dept of Transportation that get serious funding:  airports and highways.  

Railroads are private businesses that own & maintain their own track & infrastructure (bridges, signals, dispatch, etc.)  For the most part, they have very little motivation to share their track with passenger trains -  at best, Amtrak is an annoyance to their freight operations.

High speed intercity rail would have to mix with generally slow freight trains.  Most likely, HS rail would require dedicated right-of-way to operate independently.   This Congress and White House will not provide the funding required to build and subsidize HS rail because the freight railroads, airlines and aircraft industry, and the trucking industry would completely oppose it.

HS rail could happen if Amtrak were transferred out of the DOT into either the Defense Department or the Dept of Homeland Security.    Not in my lifetime, though.

Answer 2

I was thinking about that too.I love to travel by train, but is impossible, fares are too high and not convenient. A couple of years ago,I was planning atrip from Texas to South Florida. Impossible. A real shame.

And what about the buses? In europe and Sout America, they have amazing, comfortable, 2 decks buses, with coffee and juice machine, some with sleeper seats and stewardess!

And here we have the crappy Greyhound.Here, in USA, the first world!!!

Answer 3

Many would like to see such service, myself included.

The technology is there.  New infrastructure could be built.

But, as with so much abuse of "eminent domain" of late, people would be very skiddish when the surveyors start to show up around the neighborhood.

But, the biggest stumbling block is financing.  It is hard enough to get a bond measure passed for a new school or improvements to city streets and roadways, let lone for the significant $$$ it would take to start and bring a project such as this to fruition.

"Have the Government do it" is not a good option, either.  If you haven't noticed, their track record in rail operations is, well, I'll be kind, "questionable".

Answer 4

That's a d**n fine question.  We've been trying for years to get a 30 mile extension on our crappy metro rail here in northern VA.  Very sad indeed is the transportation system in this country.  I can guarantee if we had a longer gas crisis we would have all sorts of new funding for magnetic-levitation technology as well as a myriad of other advancements that we were beginning to see come out of the woodwork.

Answer 5

The simple question is cost.  TGV's run on a dedicated right-of way with no road-rail crossings.  The cost to build such a dedicated right of way with over/underpasses for every road would be enourmous.  Just the track structure would probably run 2-5 million dollars per mile.  Multiply that by the number of miles and add in the cost of the overpasses and you have your total.  The goverment will never pay it and the private sector would not realize a return on their investment for a long, long time.  TGV's in France are financed by the government.  The goverment in the US wants to get rid of Amtrak, so they will never replace it with high-speed.