As long as we keep subsidizing Big Oil welfare( tax breaks) we'll never catch up, as long as rethuglicans control the government we'll always be stuck in combustible engines..

Here's a very telling graph of why we're still addicted to the I.C.E. car...and fossil fuels...notice that the nations to the left are the ones developing or already using high speed rail; Norway is already 50% all-electric cars (mostly Tesla)..whereas the nations to the right are very I.C.E. car addicted....

[afdc.energy.gov]

So it's a matter of what the populace is used to. Europeans and Chinese are simply more used to rail service. They're also more "used to" small cars and fewer superhighways.

That's why as the U.S. economy slides downhill, the Chinese and Euro models keep rising.

Russia is stagnant at best; preferring, as we do, to push fossil fuels and coal....ignoring and minimizing alternative energy.

They, too will continue to slide down the scale...which maybe is a good thing for the rest of the world.

We will never pull forward and progress with repubs in charge of any part of our Government.

We could but rail is fairly expensive is cheaper elsewhere