[LeanderK]

it boggles my mind that a place like new york doesn't have the money to just do that. Raising the speed limit gets more important the longer you travel and connects distant parts your city better. It's a recent trend to build high-speed lines to complement an existing, dense subway network (e.g. Paris goes up to 75 mph).

I mean when were these built, a 100 years ago? Surely there's room for improvement.

[jazzyjackson]

Used to be 55mph, it was lowered to 40 tops after an accident in 1995, some places the limit is 15mph

"The Trains Are Slower Because They Slowed the Trains Down"

https://www.villagevoice.com/the-trains-are-slower-because-t...

Similarly there's a top speed of 79mph on the rest of the country on most passenger rail since the Naperville Train Disaster of 1946

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naperville_train_disaster

[rayiner]

> it boggles my mind that a place like new york doesn't have the money to just do that

Because building a subway in New York City costs $4 billion per mile.