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First we need to fix regular passenger rail in this country. As long as interstate passenger rail is controlled by the Amtrak monopoly, and its attendant unions, rail travel in America will continue to fall behind the rest of the world. There's not even regular rail service between most major US cities 3-8 hours apart, even though tracks exist and demand would exist if trains ran as fast as driving.

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Freight is a big problem. They own the rails; Amtrak is a guest.

That's only partially true-- Amtrak owns the Northeast corridor. Amtrak's only innovation in forty years (!) on the NEC is Acela, a "high speed" offering that is marginally faster than regular service (shorter times mainly because Acela makes fewer stops) and is more expensive than private air shuttle travel along the same routes.

Ah yes, I've heard of that train. It doesn't go any faster than 100mph does it?

Acela goes up to 150mph. Even the Pittsburgh-Philly Keystone Line breaks 100mph.

That's not too shabby at all.

Speed is an issue: I live 70 miles north of Wall Street and for a while worked a block away from the actual Wall Street. I found that at any time except the worst of the rush hours, I could go door to door by car faster than by the Metro train. Net, the trains were not very fast. The main problem was, the trains have to stop and start so often.

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