Amtrak is already competitive in certain regions. The northeast is the most obvious, but the train is my preferred mode of travel between Vancouver, BC and Seattle, WA. Whilst a flight is quicker, in the air, door to door is no faster. Driving generally would be quicker but I do try to be concious of the carbon impact of my travel choices.

The primary issue I have is that the hours the service runs, the first departure is a little too late to arrive for a morning meeting, and the latest is a little too early to leave the office after 5 - an earlier and later option would make it very viable for one day business travel.

Whilst the US population is generally much less dense than much of Europe, there are large areas (PNW, the northeast, much of California) that definitely have high enough population density to support an extensive rail network. Yes there must be political will to make these improvements, but surely that is true of all infrastructure spending?