[mcfedr]

Quality of the rails makes a big difference, take the train from Ukraine to Poland and it's suddenly super smooth once you cross over into the EU

[jordanb]

Track quality and maintenance by US mainlines are more Ukraine/Poland camp.

[potato3732842]

In the places where the average commenter lamenting US rail lives the track are crap because there's no reason to have everything be "cruise at 80mph" level smooth when you can't get a train up to such speeds before the next curve and even if you could there's invariably other rail traffic or a grade crossing soon thereafter.

In BFE Texas or Utah or whatever the rails are like glass because crossing 300mi of nothing in 4hr instead of 8 has enough positive impact on the rest of the system that they deem it worth paying for.

It makes sense if you think about everything in terms of time between points.

[lo_zamoyski]

Poland is in the EU. The point being made was that once you cross over from Ukraine into Poland, you notice a big improvement in the track quality.