>>1130094Nobody cares about Europe. In America high-er speed rail is anything over 79mph, because the government requires fancy things like computerized signalling, quad crossing gates, and longer switches for trains to operate above that speed. HSR is over 100 mph because that usually requires special switches and longer curves, a problem because the Federal Railroad Ministration hates banked curves and generally does not allow for much superelevation (America's max cant is less than a quarter of Europe's, and we also disallow tilting trains from being used to their fullest capacity).
This goes to demonstrate where USDOT's priorities are: freight. Because that is where all these regulations are borne from.
