I will oversimplify thing then go into a little more detail. In North America and Australia intercity trains run on the spare capacity of the freight rail roads, in Europe they run freight on the spare capacity of the passenger system. Passengers rarely if ever make the railroads money on ticket sales.
Prior to ~1960 many railroads in the US considered the passenger trains to be in part a way of advertising their freight services. Even today Brightline plans on using the passenger tickets as a loss leader, and actually making their profits from renting out retail space in the station.
The time it takes the train to travel a route is a function of length of route, track speed on that route, and how many stops the train has on that route.
I have taken 3 recent trips on Amtrak. Empire Builder to Chicago twice, and California Zephyr from Chicago to Salt Lake City. I loved all three trips. The scenery was gorgeous. Well worth the trip. The food service was great.
I have to agree with the article. You don’t take Amtrak for the speed of travel. You take it for the relaxing atmosphere and the travel experience. If I had more time I would take the train more often.
“The time it takes the train to travel a route is a function of length of route, track speed on that route, and how many stops the train has on that route.”
Well the roadbed dictates the upper speed limit. High speed passenger service requires banking and other upgrades that freight service doesn’t need and railroads aren’t willing to spend money on.
Railroads lost their near monopoly on long distance travel in the years after WWII and the whole passenger train ecosystem collapsed. If Brightline can figure out a way to make some of it work again then that would be great. To get really fast travel they have to eliminate grade crossings and bank the tracks. Maybe Florida East Coast is willing to do that.