The answer is in the American political system. First, USA is not a country, it is a union of states that are quite independent and at the dawn of the USA central government was avoiding enforcement of too much regulation, as states were very different - economically, socially, demographically, religiously, so it would be very risky to do something that might enrage one or several states.<p>Example. USA decided to change tariffs policy to help development of local industry at the times when USA didn't have its own, had to steal inventions from UK (see Slater the Traitor story). Those tariffs helped industrialization of the Northern states, but which hurt states that lived from agriculture production driven by almost free workforce and wanted as much free trade as possible to sell their products abroad. And, as we know, this caused a really bad war. BTW: the tale "to tariff or not to tariff" happens again and again in USA history, now we have another turn.<p>So there is historical reluctance to say for central government "ok, we will build a fast rail from Boston to Oregon, everyone on the way has to pay for it".<p>Secondly, USA is really, really decentralized on the counties level, this is again, historical thing. When American settlers where going West they couldn't count on central government to help them, so they knew that anything they spent, they have to earn, as a result, till today, there is no so much thinking about a "bigger picture", but mostly on the stuff which is just here. County X does not see much reason to pay for fast railway, or even letting it go through it, given the trains would not stop in that county, instead they will "have nasty, loud piece of steel" going through their land.<p>Thirdly, USA is big. Really big, it is way bigger and sparsely populated than France, so the viability of the railway is questionable. On shorter distances cars do their job, on longer flying makes more sense, as it does not require expensive infrastructure on the deserted and mostly empty territories.<p>There are areas in the USA that are more densely populated, mostly the East coast, so I can see fast rail from NY to Florida, but I don't see something like this in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming.<p>But how building this NY-Florida railway should be financed? Central budget? This would enrage other states, as for them this does not matter. Will NY, N/S Carolina, Virginia and Florida team up to do an investment? Is there any organizational structure in the USA that would provide a frame for such cooperation?<p>This is far from simple. People often say, "but this is working so great in Switzerland, Finland, France or Norway or even in China!" without looking on the specific political, economical, etc. aspects, that are incomparable to the USA.