The first direct high-speed train service between both cities will be running from December, according to Deutsche Bahn. It will offer a journey without transfers, with stops in Frankfurt, Strasbourg and Karlsruhe.
The Amtrak system in the US shares rail, and is low priority, than freight trains. Basically, passenger rail has always been a side business for the train companies the US. It is subsidized and used as a bribe by the federal government to even try to keep a passenger rail service alive.
That means our trains are often kept as slow speeds to stay behind freight trains, and will be stopped to wait for freight trains if some is off schedule. The routes are also mostly only rated for 60mph speeds, so even at full speed you’re barely keeping up with cars on the highway, and then you add in stops at every podunk town that slows it down even more.
Until the US invests in a separate passenger rail network that can support consistent speed and schedules, it will remain on par with similarly under developed nations for rail service.
By law, railroads must give passenger trains priority.
In practice, that doesn’t really happen. If a big heavy freight train is taking up a single track, or is too long to wait on a siding, it’s going to go first. And if it’s stopped, it’s going to take a while for it to get up to speed.
From what I understand, freight trains in the US are also paid in terms of tonnage per train. This incentivises slapping on as many carts with product as possible, even as speed suffers under the strain of all that weight. Considering that all single tracks require meeting trains to stop and wait for these super long, super slow freight trains, passenger traffic get a lot of increased travel time.
There is a more in depth and interesting video on the issue here(Wendover Productions) https://youtu.be/qQTjLWIHN74?si=h8wri7SeNeMwImVz
