They charge ridiculously high prices. But they can get away with it because Japan's roads make poor competition (there's not room for any more).
In many ways it's the other way around: the US has a massively subsidized road network that makes rail uncompetitive. But it's also simply that land is so much cheaper in the US that there's less need to use it efficiently.
Pretty sure paying off our debts,educating our kids and fixing the bridges that might collapse at any moment should come before a federally funded train that won't benefit more than 1% of the population.
Yes, we are discussing putting a maglev from St. Louis to Boise, Idaho because someone wanted to show you why it wouldn't work in the U.S. I bet if we thought about it for another second, we'd come up with more suitable places.
To be clear, I never really thought Boise->MO was realistic. Real options still wouldn't benefit more than a small portion of the country, unless we're going to build a high-speed rail network along side the highway system. Then you're talking hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars.
Ok, you go get right on that. I'll help you build that MagLev in our imagination. You are asking something that cannot be changed without drastic measures. You are asking American to not be the thing it is, a war mongering nation that has never not been at war or agitating and instigating or preparing for a war or conflict of some sort. We live in a war based economy with an insurmountable amount of support for exactly that in the voting populace.
No, just reallocate some of the hundreds of billions spent on wars / military and make something productive.