AMERICA does not have any genuine high-speed rail services. But that has not discouraged an intrepid group that wants to build support for a superconducting maglev train between Washington and New York. The Northeast Maglev (TNEM), the private, Washington, DC-based company behind the idea, has backing from the Japan Central Railroad and the Japanese government, and a board of advisers that includes former governors of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York.

Japan, as the Baltimore Sun explained in a recent editorial backing the plan, is involved because it "sees maglev as a crucial export technology, and the north-east corridor of the United States presents a marquee opportunity to demonstrate its value." Indeed TNEM has proved adept at generating buzz and money: the Washington Post reported earlier this month that the company has raised $50m in private funds.

But the obstacles remain significant. That $50m is a tiny fraction of the (at least) $10 billion it would cost to build a maglev just between Washington and Baltimore. The $50m is not intended for construction, but if it was, it would not even get the maglev out of downtown DC. Putting the maglev underground (to reduce planning problems, given that the area between DC and New York is among the most densely populated stretches of land in America) and extending it to New York would cost many billions more. Airlines would fight hard against the competition. And America's ever-sclerotic federal government would no doubt provide the biggest challenge. Now all TNEM has to figure out is how to acquire rights-of-way, how to overcome the political obstacles, whether to ask for public funding, and how to pay for the project if taxpayer money does not materialise.

That said, nothing else America has tried on the high-speed rail front has been successful. Those failures could actually be a reason for optimism this time. Maybe TNEM's plan is so different that it might just work.