America’s high-speed rail fail

Explain It to Me

Vox Media Podcast Network

Education, Politics, News, Society & Culture

4.4 • 7.9K Ratings

🗓️ 3 August 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The US is well behind much of the world in building passenger rail, especially high-speed trains. But we do have one major advantage. This episode was produced by Devan Schwartz, edited by Naureen Khan, fact-checked by Melissa Hirsch, engineered by Patrick Boyd with help from Andrea Kristinsdottir and hosted by Jonquilyn Hill. Photo by Robert Alexander/Getty Images. If you have a question, give us a call on 1-800-618-8545 or send us a note ⁠here⁠. Listen to Explain It to Me ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: ⁠vox.com/members⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:29.4	That's onepassword.com slash podcast offer, all lowercase.
0:38.5	I'm really ashamed that United States has not got on the train, train, no pun intended.
0:43.7	The experience is really bad.
0:45.3	All aboard.
0:47.1	Explain it to me, Express.
0:51.5	This is Explain It to Me from Vox.
0:53.7	I'm John Flynn Hill, and today we're taking the train.
0:58.1	Because trains take a route that roads can't.
1:01.7	So you can see a lot of the terrain changes.
1:05.2	You can see the stars at night, and it's just so peaceful.
1:10.3	Now, I grew up out West, so I didn't get familiar with trains until I was in college.
1:14.8	And honestly, I was wowed by the fact that I could take the Amtrak from D.C. to Philly.
1:19.8	But a lot of you aren't nearly as impressed as I was with the state of passenger trains here in the U.S.
1:24.3	You know, 99% of travel, you're not going to be able to use rail in the American
1:30.8	homeland.
1:31.7	The U.S. is kind of lacking.
1:34.2	There should be more stations, more train tracks, and more stops, I think.
	...

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