China has the world’s fastest and largest high-speed rail network — more than 19,000 miles, the vast majority of which was built in the past decade.  Japan’s bullet trains can reach nearly 200 miles per hour and date to the 1960s. They have moved more than 9 billion people without a single passenger causality.

France began service of the high-speed TGV train in 1981 and the rest of Europe quickly followed.  But the U.S. has no true high-speed trains, aside from sections of Amtrak’s Acela line in the Northeast Corridor.  The Acela can reach 150 mph for only 34 miles of its 457-mile span. Its average speed between New York and Boston is about 65 mph.

So why does the United States lack major high-speed rail infrastructure?  CNBC explains why the USA is way far behind many other countries when it comes to high-speed rail.  And a lot of it has to do with roads.

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