In the time it takes a train to get from New York to Washington, you can get from Paris to Provence - twice as far. I mapped every rail station you can reach from central Paris and central New York in 1, 2, and 3 hours. Two hours from Paris gets you to Lyon, Strasbourg, or Nantes. Two hours from Midtown gets you to Wilmington. Paris to London, under the Channel, is a slightly longer trip than New York to Washington. The train is 40 minutes faster. Washington only makes the 3-hour cutoff on one train a day. It isn't about distance. France has built dedicated high-speed lines out of Paris since 1981, and TGVs run them at 186 mph. The Northeast Corridor shares track with commuter trains and runs through century-old tunnels. Acela only hits top speed on short stretches. The Northeast has the cities and the riders for this. Every hop on the corridor, even Boston to New York, is shorter than Paris to Lyon. What it doesn't have is track built for speed.