high-speed network could wrap around the Equator and keep going for thousands of miles more. Japan’s first high-speed service, opened in 1964, is nearly old enough to start collecting a pension. Even in what are perhaps unexpected places, like Uzbekistan and Morocco, new high-speed lines are whisking travellers between bucket-list destinations. But in the US, the world’s biggest economy and fourth-largest country by area, the high-speed rail revolution has yet to arrive, leaving international visitors and Americans alike scratching their heads.