The Time America Tried to Build a Bullet Train

TL;DR

America's 1960s attempt to match Japan's shinkansen produced the flawed Metroliner, which never hit target speeds but accidentally created the vital Northeast Corridor.

Key Points

• 1.LBJ's 1965 High Speed Ground Transportation Act launched America's bullet train ambition. Inspired by Japan's 1964 shinkansen debut, the act funded R&D for a US high-speed network, targeting the Northeast Corridor between Washington D.C. and New York.
• 2.The Metroliner was built under an impossibly compressed 25-month timeline. Japan took six years to plan and build the shinkansen; the US gave the Budd Company just 17 months to manufacture 50 carriages, resulting in vehicles riddled with broken traction systems, engine fires, and doors flying off at speed.
• 3.In tests the Metroliner exceeded 150mph, but averaged only 110mph in regular service. The core problem was that trains ran on a century-old route never designed for high speed — unlike Japan, which built an entirely new, purpose-built shinkansen line on separate track.
• 4.The Metroliner pioneered an early cell phone system in partnership with Bell Laboratories. Trackside coils switched phone signals to local frequencies as the train passed, allowing passengers to make calls anywhere in the US — a feature targeting business travellers.
• 5.Chronic technical faults meant nearly half of Metroliner cars were out of service between 1969 and 1970. Amtrak took over in 1971 and began phasing out the original cars from 1976; the service ended completely in 1981, with the Turbotrain also killed by the 1970s energy crisis.
• 6.The Metroliner's true legacy is the Northeast Corridor, now critical national infrastructure. Today 800,000 people ride the network daily across 2,000 trains; the region generates 20% of America's GDP and 30% of its jobs, vindicating Senator Claiborne Pell's original 1962 vision.