Well since the Acela train can go up to 150mph for 49 of it's 457 miles, the US has just as much high speed rail as China and actually it's better because slower trains let you see more scenery and you're not beholden to authoritarian concepts like being on time to things
The Europeans too like to pride themselves of their trains; which, granted, are faster than in the US individually, but in order to get from Rome to Berlin, you have to change trains at least three times and sleep at a station so it also takes 20 hours
European trains are also nightmarishly overpriced. I would like to use them more often but i haven't been able to afford to take the train ever since i finished university and lost my reduced price ticket. It's absurd how expensive it is and for what is quite a mediocre service compared to what you see in East Asia.
By design, they are priced almost the same as airline tickets, when travelling to different countries. There's a huge economy centered around air travel (air lines, airports, shops inside airports).
When I was living in the UK, a train ticket between London and York would cost me around 50-90 pounds. I found a bus company that would do the trip for the same length of time for only 12 pounds. The bus would take you from York to Loughborough (half the way to London), and then we'd get off, be handed train tickets (included in the 12 pound price) and continue the rest of the journey by train. Proving that the straight-up train ticket was probably twice or triple as expensive as it should have been.
30min train ride in switzerland cost me 60-70 franken, its insane as a foreigner. i believe it was a day ticket, but still
Not only for foreigners. I needed an annual ticket only for a specific stretch to go to university, but there's no such option. Instead, I had to pay a ticket for travelling the entire canton.
Yes, but for foreigners it's even more expensive due to the currency, while most swiss people that travel by train often have a Halbtax abonnement anyways
