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The German ICE Train did suffer at least one catastrophic derailment at high speed. The derailment occurred just short of an overpass and the train basically pilled up against the piers of the overpass. See: http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9806/04/germany.train/ or Google Search "German ICE Train derailment. The train was traveling at about 200 Kmph when its believed a wheel broke. About 100 died and 88 additional were injured. This happened near Hanover, in North Central Germany. Last year I hosted an exchange student from Germany who lived near Hanover and we had talked about this. He said that in spite of this, ridership is still very strong, given that it was an isolated incident. He said that he found their rail system overall to be pretty convenient. HERE'S THE BIG KICKER that I don't think anyone mentioned above. In Germany, gasoline is about $2.50 euros per liter. ie.. approx $8.00 US / gallon. How much would you drive your car if gas cost that much in the US? What do you think the govt does with the revenue that they raise? Perhaps transportation projects like high-speed rail. I think many U.S. citizens want the perks of this, but don't want to pay for it. There is also a big difference in the US in terms of population and Geography. Germany is approx 2.5 times the size of my home state (Wisconsin), but has nearly 10 times the population. That changes the mass transit dynamic tremendously. I guess its all got to be viewd in context. It is ironic how much money is poured into government built and funded airports, highways, canals and ports .... but when it comes to a rail project, there is a VERY jaundiced eye turned toward it. Maybe there still some stigma from the land grants given by the govt to RR's in the past and the abuses that happened there. Who knows. Maybe its just an generally un-educated public who doesn't understand the potential of passenger rail and that virtually every other form of transportation that they use is REALLY publicly funded underneath it all.
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