Expansion of US Highspeed Rail?

FWIW, I took the train from Portland, OR to Fargo, ND before Amtrak (1966) and it was horrid! We arrived something like 8 hours late. We were left on a siding at one point for several hours, in the middle of the night, in December, somewhere in Montana or ND, with the door at the end of the car open. It was freezing. It was miserable. A friend was on the same train, but he went all the way to Chicago, where, as he told me later, they arrived two days late. The train had no food service and there was no observation car.

The railroad company operated passenger cars because they were required to, but they went out of their way to make the experience as dreadful as possible, because they didn't really want to carry passengers. The big profits were in freight.

Not sure that privatizing rail travel in the U.S. would be a great idea!

 

Just to be clear, I am not advocating the privatization of passenger rail service. I think it needs greater public support.

Icarus