The map above shows the huge disparity between high speed rail service in the United States compared to Europe.
In the United States:
Amtrak’s Acela is the United States’ only true high-speed rail service, reaching 150 mph (240 km/h) over 49.9 miles (80.3 km) of track along the Northeast Corridor.
Contrast that with Spain:
As of 2025, Spain operates the largest high-speed rail network in Europe with 3,973 km (2,469 mi) and the second-largest in the world, trailing only China.
Interestingly, Spain’s network is now actually longer than Japan’s Shinkansen network which is 2,951.3 km (1,833.9 mi), despite the fact that Japan pioneering the technology in 1964.
Overall, Europe is estimated to have around 9,600 km (6,000 miles) of highspeed rail lines, or around 120x the milage of the US.
However, China at 45,000 km has nearly 5X more than Europe or a whopping 560x more than the United States (at least until the Califronia high-speed rail opens). See: The Insane Growth of China’s High-Speed Rail Network Between 2008 & 2024
In terms of ridership here the numbers for countries in 2019 that had at least 5 million annual journeys.
| Country | Ridership (millions) | Passenger-km (billions) |
|---|---|---|
| China | 2,357.7 | 774.7 |
| Japan | 354.6 | 99.3 |
| Russia | 156.7 | 6.2 |
| France | 125.9 | 60.0 |
| Germany | 99.2 | 33.2 |
| Taiwan | 67.4 | 12.0 |
| South Korea | 66.1 | 16.0 |
| Italy | 59.7 | 21.1 |
| Spain | 41.2 | 16.1 |
| United States | 12.7 | 3.4 |
| Sweden | 11.6 | 3.9 |
| Turkey | 8.3 | 2.7 |
Below are some more detailed maps for both the US and Europe.
High-Speed Rail map of the United States
High-Speed Rail map of Europe
Side by Side Comparison
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