Amtrak train hits 111 mph in test run

Government run trains? Much of what is now NS and CSX was until a few years ago Conrail, a government bailout. Several class I railroads failed in the 70's for various reasons and the government rolled them into one corporation, returned them to profitability, and then sold them off again (as should have been done). Amtrak is still quasi government owned and is unlikely to be financially independent anytime soon due to many reasons, right-of-way being one of them. Unlike highways or airways, rail ROW is typically privately owned in this country. So a passenger operator like Amtrak must pay the track owner a fee to operate on their rails. Also for high speed rail to be truly effective, it must run on a dedicated set of tracks which cost money to build.

It's not that light rail won't work in the US. The I-95 corridor on the east coast, the I-5 corridor on the west, a central line between Minneapolis, Chicago and St Louis with a KC and Denver spur. All of these would make a lot of sense for a 150+ MPH train, but it would require dedicated infrastructure. As long as we continue the taxpayer subsidy to air travel, passenger rail will never happen.