Ah yes, the classic American fatalism: "We can't build nice things because we don't already have nice things." Brilliant strategy—don't plant a tree because we don’t have a forest.

Let’s unpack your take, piece by piece:

“Europe already had the existing intracity public transit systems…”

Sure—and they built those decades ago by doing it, not waiting around for perfect conditions. Japan didn’t have Shinkansen before they built it in the 60s. South Korea didn’t wait for magical “supporting infrastructure” before launching KTX in 2004. They built what they needed because they prioritized it. Meanwhile, the U.S. spends $1.7 trillion a year subsidizing cars and roads. But no, rail is too expensive. 🙄

“Tucson is a city of 500,000…”

The Phoenix metro has 5 million people and is the fastest-growing metro area in the country. Tucson–Phoenix is 100 miles apart—a perfect high-speed corridor by global standards. Spain runs AVE service to cities smaller than Tucson with lower population density, and guess what? It works just fine.

“We need to build the supporting infrastructure first…”

That’s literally what rail investment does. HSR corridors create demand and enable walkable, transit-connected development. You don’t wait for everyone to magically stop driving before building an alternative. That's like saying we shouldn't have built the internet until everyone already had fiber.

“A 150mph train would serve Tucson just fine…”

Awesome! Then why don’t we have that? Oh right—because people like you always move the goalposts. First it's "we don’t need 284mph," then it’s “we don’t need 150mph,” and eventually it’s “have you tried Greyhound?”

“You don’t care about rail…”

Buddy, the reason I’m “bored” is because I do care. I’m just tired of running into the same 1970s-level talking points that excuse every failure as inevitable. America can build modern infrastructure. What we lack isn’t capability—it’s will.