the rail system in USA is a joke and that is unlikely to change for a lot of reasons. I suspect corruption is one of them. That rail from San Fran to LA that they were talking about and invested huge amounts of money into went nowhere.

I have only traveled by amtrak a couple of times and both times I think I could have ridden a bicycle faster than that thing moved. It's crazy becuase USA has some of the most extensive railway lines in the world but i guess that is why we are so good at getting stuff hither and tither because freight has priority on the rails in USA. I've been on trains where we pulled over for an hour to wait for some majestically huge train carrying sodium or something to pass by.

The dedicated human lines are the only way forward, and with the corruption, unions, and other such things that exist in USA, those are never going to happen. I think you need some sort of authoritarian system like China has to get these things or a sense of duty and patriotism like Japan does.

I hope I'm wrong!