Switzerland is just behind Japan in terms of punctuality. The timetable leaves 15 minutes for changing trains. In Germany, you often only have 5 minutes to change trains and it never works. At the end of each day, the entire network has long collective delays. In addition to the rotten technology, such systemic errors are responsible for the unreliability and delays.
Our superfast trains are modern, but with a few exceptions, such as between Cologne and Frankfurt, they have to use the ancient tracks.
Japan has completely separate tracks for each Shinkansen connection and the trains run at the same frequency as underground lines.
Re the US, the railway once made your country. I think the areas in the USA are far too large from east to west going superfast. I could imagine that you could make two all-electric fast lines in the USA, one from San Diego to Seattle and a second from D.C. to Boston?
