German (Transrapid) magnetic train derails, killing one...

[Proteus_MST]

With the large distances in the USA,
a MagLev like the Transrapid could be really useful.
(in fact much more useful than in Europe, where you have smaller distances between the cities and where high speed passenger trains are already in use)

Much faster than a conventional train,
cleaner (and probably cheaper in operation costs) than both, planes and other trains and (despite this recent accident) much safer than both of them.

Only downside is that you first have to invest a large amount of money to build the tracks, but the cheaper operation costs makes up for it.

[Dis]

It's a huge investment. Billions of dollars. No one wants to pony up the cash.

The problem is, people like their cars. Our monorail (which is completely different, I know) in Vegas is doing poorly. though they made several bad design decisions. Locating it almost a mile off the strip was the worst decision. But they needed 30,000 riders a month to break even. They aren't doing it.

Unless they can convince people to not drive from LA to LV, then it's not going to happen. Sure the train will be faster than driving (esp with traffic the way it is), but then they will still need a car when they get here. So they either have to take a cab, or rent a car. Making the cost higher than just driving yourself. So high speed trains really can't compete with private automobiles. It has to compete with air. Which is tough. As air is so cheap, fast, and safe. And hardly no one takes a plane from LA to Las Vegas, making a high speed train between the 2 cities unfeasible.

[DRoseDARs]

I have to imagine that for LA-LV driving is viewed as the lesser of two evils. Flying may be quicker... until you factor in going through the airport both ways and then the actual cost vs just paying for gas to fill up your tank. If LA is used as an airhub for tourists to transfer to a HST to Vegas, Vegas might not even need to bother with the cost of building a new airport while LA gets extra tourist dollars by virtue of more flights. And given that California is already considering a wider HST system for the southern part of the state (SanFran, Sac, LA/SD) perhaps this could be a way for those cities to share some flight capacity/lessen the passengers loads on their respective airports.