Other than the NIMBY-ism, lawyers all looking to make a shitload of money off the taxpayer by looking for reasons to delay the project, and the anti-mass transit attitude the US has…just look at the California high speed rail project mired in legal grifting for instance.

There’s generic American “we fuck up nice things becuase fuck the rules” attitudes. You can have nice high-speed rail in places like Europe or Japan, or high speed driving on segments of the Autobahn, because society has enough sense to not fuck it up. They’re not parking tractor trailers or cars on rail intersections causing crashes on rail like we have all the time in the US. People generally obey rules like keeping right unless passing, or not blocking the passing lane in Europe. In several shopping areas and airports they have people movers without steps that are ramps betwen floors. In the US it would be a very short period between the installation and some fool riding a skateboard or bike down the ramp and hurting themselves or other people - then come the lawsuits. Someone would probably punch an idiot trying to do that in Europe.

So yeah. Even if we could muster the political balls to build such a needed rail, and get the money for it (because it would have to be profitable of course), some jackass would light the track on fire, park a car on it, or who knows what other dumbassery, because fuck nice things.