I didn't mean to imply that commercial aviation industry is the same in Europe. I am just talking about what normal people see when they travel. You gave the impression that someone who travels will be blown away by what they see in the US. I am just saying I was not. In fact I found that a lot of what you experience as a regular traveler feels behind Europe in quite a number of areas.

Since I am not in the aviation business, I don't know what it is like shipping things by air. I take your word for it being far behind the US in the area.

As for building infrastructure and the challenges around that. I don't pretend to know the specifics of the US or that it is easy. I was making a comparison to Europe. Whatever challenges you face in the US, I very much in doubt that it is any harder than the challenges you face in Europe.

And yes I know there are rocky parts of the US, I have traveled by train through the rockies. But as someone who grew up in Norway with mountains and hills everywhere, I think what shocked me most about the US was simple the enormity of the great plains. How you can go by train or cars for days upon days and gaze out over a vast flat landscape. You cannot see this much flatness in Europe.

The US is just abundant in space compared to Europe. And not just in space but also in terms of being more pratical to utilize due to its flatness. Roads already follow a grid pattern in the US which must help a lot.

About "squeezing in" rail lines. The low density in US suburbs means you have a lot less infrastructure to potentially modify to get a rail line in than you would need to do in a European city. So many suburbs already have wide 4 lane roads with wide pavements and large front yards. These areas run straight lines through the suburbs.

The fact that the US has more roads, speaks to me as a factor making adding railroad easier. I don't get how it makes harder. It would be easier to e.g. convert a strip of road to railoard I suppose than knocking down houses.