(Though, in all seriousness, I'd kill for a high speed train system in this country.)
Continent you mean.
This makes me so jealous. Being a huge rail and public transit nerd while living in America is... frustrating.
I have this long-term project I've been working on to create a fictional country with badass transit systems (local and national); the large-scale rail networks in western Europe (France and Germany in particular) have provided a LOT of inspiration.
One thing I hope I'm able to do one of these days is visit Europe, as I have never been there. If I ever make it (which is dependant on having the
money to do so, bleh), I will probably spend a good 50% or more of my time riding around on trains!
But hey, I'm on your side...America is pathetically behind Europe on public transport. We need more trains!
Tell me about it!
We do have a high-speed rail project here in California, but... its current status would best be described as "on life-support." And to quote a certain TV show that I'd wager a few people here would be familiar with: life support is
failing.
The whole thing is so bogged down in politics, infighting, territorial disputes, NIMBY-ism, an out of control budget, and other problems, that I wonder if it'll ever be built. And even if it actually happens, more problems await - the station being built as the intended northern terminus in San Francisco is badly designed, the HSR commission is set on implementing airport-style security theater and passenger routing at all of its stations, the situation with Caltrain along the peninsula between SF and San Jose is still completely up in the air...
It's a gigantic mess.
To say nothing of the fact that really, we have no business jumping straight to high-speed rail - a far better idea would be to begin to address the utterly terrible nature of our
regular passenger rail. A protracted, comprehensive overhaul and expansion of those systems over a long period of time could be much more useful. Implementing high-speed rail would be a logical
end to that process, not a
beginning. But such a process isn't flashy or exciting enough to get people behind it.
+ our trams
Nice! Love that sleek look that a lot of modern trams have. That's in London, right?
When I was a kid in Seattle we had electric buses that ran on cables like that, though they were definitely buses, not trams, and could go off the cables as well. I adored those buses as a child -- I'm not sure if they still have them though, it's been a long time since I lived there.
Ah, a quick google shows me they are called trolly buses and I think they're terrific.
These? They do still use em, these particular buses (made by Italian company Breda) were originally dual-mode - capable of running off of either trolley wire-fed electricity or an onboard diesel engine, and have since been converted to electric-only. Seattle also has standard trolleybuses, as well, in the form of old
Gillig Phantoms, and they are slated to get some shiny new trolleys from New Flyer sometime this year. Trolleys are not run in the Downtown Transit Tunnel anymore since the light rail began running, so they are used on surface street electrified lines instead. The Bredas always had a lot of reliability issues, but I agree that trolley buses in general are a great thing. We have tons of em in San Francisco, partly for the same reason that there are so many in Seattle: hills. No other transit vehicle can compete with an electric trolleybus when it comes to zipping up a hill with ease.
Oh, and since I don't own a car, this is my ride:
Recently acquired, locally-built Gillig commuter bus for AC Transit's Transbay Express service. They're quite comfortable.
. No air-con but TWO sunroofs. And no diagnostics. 
