President Joe Biden wants high-speed rail built with U.S. components. That’s impossible, advocates say, because they don’t exist. A full-scale m

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2023-05-29 10:00:02

President Joe Biden wants high-speed rail built with U.S. components. That’s impossible, advocates say, because they don’t exist.

A full-scale mock-up of a high-speed train is shown in California. Rail advocates want the Biden administration to ease regulations to help high-speed rail in the U.S. | Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo

President Joe Biden is the country’s most famous champion of passenger trains — but some fellow supporters fear his policies could squelch the last hopes of bringing true high-speed rail to the U.S.

Biden’s strengthening of federal “Buy America” funding requirements might make high-speed rail impossible to build in the U.S., transportation advocates say. They had hoped to see super-fast trains lessen Americans’ reliance on automobiles and aviation, reducing a major source of greenhouse gas pollution.

“Trains capable of going 200 miles per hour are only made in a couple places in the whole world,” said Andy Kunz, president of the U.S. High Speed Rail Association, an advocacy group. “You stand behind it and say, ‘It has to be 100 percent made in America,’ you’re not going to get a [high-speed] rail system.”