>It has a lot of stops, also theres issues with track speed limits.

Outside of major cities, it's generally a thing where you pour in money and faster track speeds come out.

>Additionally, it's running on freight rail, not passenger rail.

In many countries, there are no such distinctions outside of HSR which has it's own requirements - it's all mixed use. In Poland freight trains use the same 160-200km/h tracks as passenger railway, and move aside to let faster trains go through. Also they use tracks more when there are pretty much 0 passenger trains, like in the middle of the night.

>On top of that our cars are grandfathered in and can't be replaced at the moment.

I completely do not understand that part. Your railway cars can't hit 160km/h?

The problem is the freight railways own the track and amtrak doesn't. Legally amtrak has right of way over the freight trains but the freight companies routinely flout this and cause delays as the law is unenforced. Amtrak keeps track of these incidents which they publish on their site here: https://www.amtrak.com/on-time-performance

I guess that's a politics issue, the freight companies can chuck money at lobbying to make sure they don't have to give way.

Hopefully with some decent lines appearing in the US, Brightline and California HSR in the future people will start to experience better rail and this stuff will get more focus.

Amtrak trains can hit 80-90 mph, even the big ugly beasts. Some are rated to the lowest of high speed rail, but the track has to be updated with positive train control (PTC) to go that fast in the USA, and freight railroads have no need or desire to install that.

People from Europe don’t quite realize just how much freight the US moves by rail. It’s absolutely batshit.

> U.S. freight movements will rise from around 19.3 billion tons in 2020