This was a great read, particularly while self-loathing. The author needs to see the bigger picture:
The USA had to keep the money ball rolling in American Heavy Industry after the highly-mechanized WWII. The USA had: cheap steel, cheap gasoline, and...a bunch of guys who had been risking their lives in mechanized equipment around Europe for a few years! Everybody wanted to buy a car after the war, and this resulted in the modern USA: highly accessible to automobiles first, and the associated car culture.
I'm wondering if the author was unable to find this insight themselves, it seems they are trying to find a pattern among the failures, to explain "why USA has no successful high speed rail."
Maybe in a few more generations, everyone will forget about that war, and then, we can ride from anywhere in Megacity One to Peachtrees tower.