Plans For High-Speed Rail Are Slowing Down President Obama set a goal of giving 80 percent of Americans access to high-speed rail within the next quarter century. Here’s a look at the high-speed rail industry around the world. By Michael A. Fletcher January 15 PALO ALTO, Calif. — Critics began panning the first leg of California’s futuristic high-speed rail network as a “train to nowhere” soon after officials decided to build it not in the major population centers of Los Angeles or San Francisco, but through the state’s Central Valley farming belt. Since then, things have only gotten worse. Spiraling...