There is an absolutely gigantic rail network in the United States. It's almost entirely privately owned by freight rail companies and they're not interested in

There is an absolutely gigantic rail network in the United States. It's almost entirely privately owned by freight rail companies and they're not interested in passenger traffic. Amtrak is the basically only long haul passenger traffic carrier and for almost all of their routes they do not get priority above freight traffic. This makes it very difficult to stay on schedule, which leads to a bad reputation, which leads to decreases in passenger traffic. The only real exception to this rule is the Acela express train on the eastern seaboard. There, Amtrak owns most of the rail and thus can run their passenger trains at a faster speed with priority. Acela gets good reviews and has tons of traffic.