At least we have Amtrak, right?

Taking a train in the United States, in general, sucks. While I love the idea in theory, our country made a decision a few decades ago that cars were the way of the future and that trains were boring — and so, getting anywhere by train is a slow, expensive process.

That really isn’t the case in other countries, however. China, which has a land area comparable to the continental U.S., has built over 45,000 kilometers of high-speed rail. The United States, in contrast, has about 80 kilometers of high speed rail — no, not 80k, just 80.

For being a significantly smaller country, Japan also has an impressive amount of high-speed rail — and dear god is its speed high. Here’s a video of some people seeing a prototype of the new bullet train, and their level of shock is palpable: 

People reacting to the new Japanese Maglev bullet train passing right by them during a test run.
byu/DataPhreak inyouseeingthisshit