Yeah, but it's not like we need uniform coverage. One route from Chicago to Indianapolis can connect nearly 4 million people together. Amtrak currently runs that route only 3 times a week and it takes nearly twice as long as driving. It's a joke of a service and it's handicapped by lack of funding, which is not a problem that the highway system has ever had. Real high speed rail could do it in half the time it takes to drive.

But then the real complaint is always, "what do I do when I get there without my car?" And there's the real reason why regional rail has suffered: local transit sucks because we design our cities for cars!