> (We also have world-class municipal and regional rail in the New York area.)

If by world-class you mean something that most of the world would consider a rail system, yes (in comparison to most US cities' attempts which aren't really worth even pretending constitutes regional rail). If you mean something that most of the world would consider as something worth emulating, nope.

Metro-North and the LIRR have on-time rates rivalling the Swiss rail system.

I'm not sure municipal rail in NY is quite world-class, tho it is by far the best the US has to offer.

I wonder what the cost would be to build a passenger rail network that simply parallels the freight network, even if low speed. Amtrak is terrible mostly because freight trains get priority and it screws up the schedules.