Isn't Amtrak a complete joke compared to pretty much any European or Asian rail system? They must be desperate to put out something like this.
How many of those countries though have a major political party that generally hates passenger rail and any chance they get they try to defund and generally make life difficult to operate their national passenger rail?
Some quick google searches and running a comparison to the largest rail company in Europe, Deutsche Bahn, Amtrak is about 1/20th the size in terms of coverage, revenue, and employees. I don't think DB specializes in carrying passengers though, and the amount of actual rail that Amtrak owns and operates for it's own use is very small. At a guess, more than anything, Amtrak's problem might be that it's just too small scale while lacking integration in the rest of the US rail system. That maybe it's inefficient and inflexible?
Passenger rail is always a kind of tricky business. Cost has always been a hurdle. Even in Japan, at the beginning of their passager rail system development the "father" of it actually lied pretty badly to the government on how much building it would cost. If he hadn't, the naysayers would never have approved it's development due to the cost, but he felt the importance of it was such that they'd easily see in the end just how much of a critical investment it was in the end once it got going.
Personal opinion, America would be better off prioritizing bike-centered stuff first than public transit. As for reasons, bikes seem to fit the individualistic spirit of our people better (like customize them, you can go off-trail, etc.), and transit comes with a whole host of sociopolitical issues like property allocation or eminent domain, crime aboard fleet vehicles or stations, fare pricing, funding for maintenance and expansion, and whatever else. They've already updated and built new bike and pedestrian infrastructure in my locality, and so far I've seen more people using it (though it could also be because of summer ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ).
How many of those countries though have a major political party that generally hates passenger rail and any chance they get they try to defund and generally make life difficult to operate their national passenger rail?
Yeah, these people don't understand that we don't have anything better. Or if you're from NW Minnesota like me, literally nothing. Only rail here is freight.
