Are there any bullet trains in America?
High-speed rail in the United States
Authorities in the United States maintain various definitions of high-speed rail. The definitions range from rail services with top speeds of 110 miles per hour (180km/h) to 150 miles per hour (240km/h) or higher by the United States Department of Transportation which is an entity in the executive branch,[5] while the United States Code, which is the official codification of Federal statutes, defines them as the rail services with "reasonably expected to reach sustained speeds of more than 125 miles per hour".[6] A legislative branch agency within the Library of Congress, the Congressional Research Service, used different terms to clarify the confusion by defining the rail services with top speeds less than 150mph (240km/h) to be higher-speed rail.[1] There is no current train service in the United States which meets all of the domestic criteria for high-speed rail. Amtrak's Acela Express is classified as "higher-speed rail" in the Congressional Research Service report by virtue of being on shared tracks, whereas page 5 of that report also requires dedicated tracks to be classified as "very high speed rail".[1]
Sakuragichō train fire
This accident also caused the resignation of Hideo Shima, director of the railway's rolling stock department, in 1951. Shima was later employed with Japanese National Railways in 1955 to design and build Japan's first "bullet train" (Shinkansen).