Most countries has that but it still doesn't take many decades to build a simple piece of railway.

Details matter. Most countries have environmental laws, but their teeth differ.

Polish environmental law is quite notorious for being deliberately easy on developers (at least outside national parks), which translates into a lot of construction activity.

OTOH Californian CEQA is such a NIMBY/BANANA weapon of mass anti-construction that I have heard of it, despite being located a third of a world away.

Both sound like intent.