Just to take the low hanging fruit that I'm directly familiar with, there _is_ rail service from LA to San Diego. Just keeping the existing service operating is a massive challenge costing millions of dollars per year to keep the existing train lines operational in the face of coastal erosion. Meanwhile, there are literally dozens of proposals ranging from hundreds of millions to billions of dollars to implement a long-term fix by relocating the rails and realigning them to support HSR. Cost aside, _all_ of these proposals are being met with strong NIMBY and/or environmentalist resistance. Do NIMBYs and environmental protection laws not exist in Europe?