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I think geography and population density has a lot to do with why we don't have any successful or widely used nationwide rail. As Weather Spotter mentioned, Americans do have diverse "needs" and places to travel. Aside from the coasts, the major cities in America are pretty spread out with not a lot of people in between them. In europe there are people everywhere. Here's some quick numbers from wikipedia:
United states
3.79 million sq miles
83 people/ sq mi
Europe
3.93 million sq miles
181 people/ sq mi
Our federal government would be responsible for spreading the tax money (in this hypothetical case for subsidizing high speed rail) over one country roughly the size of europe. Europe has 50 countries each with federal governments held at various levels of accountability for subsidizing high speed rail among and out of their countries for twice the population density we have here in the US.
I therefore doubt much will happen with this on a federal level, which is probably why schwartzenegger is looking into high speed rail for his own state (which in my opinion is often on the vanguard of most progressive initiatives in the country). California seeks efficient transportation for its 234 people per square mile population density and long slender sliver of populated land. I definitely think it could work on a state level at least for a state like california, and splash over into oregon/washington. I can see the same happening on the east coast, but once we start zigzagging about the heartland, things start to get expensive for the number of people served. Not that I don't believe everyone should be entitled to have high speed rail within x miles of her home, but realistically a nationwide system just doesn't seem like it would work anytime soon (my guess is for at least 50 years) and is a very difficult pill to swallow given how much money we've invested in automobile infrastructure.
BTW I have a sneaking suspicion that high speed rail works and is as well received in Japan because their population density is 873 people /sq mi, over TEN TIMES the population density of America. It's probably a lot easier to get a bunch of sardine packed taxpayers to be willing to subsidize a railway from Sapporo to Kyoto than for ten times less hotdog eating taxpayers willing to subsidize a high speed railway from Boston to Phoenix.
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