High speed rail in the United states lags behind most European and East Asian countries. The Acela express which runs from Boston to Washington D.C is the only high speed rail in the United States. The average speed of the Acela express is about 68 mph. This is a big difference when compared to the Shanghai Maglev train which averages close to 158 mph.

The leaders in high speed rail technology are Japan, France and China. The United States has to put in lot of effort and research to come close to them in terms of high speed rail technology. The Federal government has announced a $8billion project for development of high speed rail in the U.S.

There are lot of benefits associated with high speed rails. They are more energy efficient than cars and planes. It is estimated that about 65 lbs of CO2 is released for every 100 miles of a car trip. In a plane the figure reduces to 55 lbs and when traveling by train, it is only about 13lbs. This makes traveling by train a much greener choice.

The US is not years behind Europe and Asia as Asian companies and European companies have offered to sell the US off the shelf technology to create systems. Automotive lobbying efforts have hampered these efforts however recent spikes in prices of oil have stimulated corporate interest.

Specifically the trucking industry could benefit by reducing the number of trucks needed to haul products to market and this could save an estimated 40 billion dollars a year in trucking costs to corporate America based on recent estimates from the Department of Commerce. Incentive enough on its face.