High Speed Rail Plan: Catch up with the Japanese?

Another SA story on high-speed trains in America. I've been reading these stories for 30 years.

I finally took the Osaka to Tokyo bullet train last weekend. It was very cool. The more interesting thing was they print your arrival time on the ticket, for whatever stop (eg Kyoto), and that's the exact time you arrive. With Amtrak, you can easily expect a 10 minute delay.

  Two weeks ago I waited 15 minutes for my girlfriend to arrive from her "45 minute" trip.  She was just sitting on A train outside the station waiting for a track to open.

So, we really have 2 problems. Slow trains and getting them to arrive on time.