And quite a few industrialised countries around the world are building more rail lines.

The US already has an extensive freight rail network. It's the one part of their rail transport that works fairly well. Expanding that should be possible.

Especially because freight typically travels slower than passengers, so your track doesn't need to be as straight, so you have more leeway in planning.

It's certainly not a US only problem. My city tore up all it's rail and now there are houses in the way so we can't put it back. On top of that, labour and materials are so expensive we probably couldn't afford it anyway.

Thanks for showing me that project, I had not heard of it. I am also excited to watch what Bright Rail are doing and if that translates into a country wide approach to high speed rail.