re: Can high speed rail work in the United States?

For cultural, political, societal, and financial reasons, it'll never work.

I wish it did because I would much rather get on a fast train than deal with airports, but fact of the matter is society isn't ready for it, similar to how it works elsewhere in the world.

Even if it got built it would go bankrupt because of lack of traffic. Most people aren't used to being in that level of proximity with large sections of the public.

The engineering and practicality is there, the people are money are not.