$98 per barrel oil

Bob Noel writes:

Perhaps not impossible, but just the environmental impact analyses required
would result in decades of delays.

plus think about the carbon footprint from the actual process of
building an electricl rail system.

It's almost trivial compared to the impact and footprint of a highway system,
so that argument doesn't work, either.

Americans don't have such a system because, for various reasons, they simply
don't want one. But it's entirely feasible, efficient, and practical.