Used to be the other way around. And both freight and passenger were faster. Then the federal government came along and got into the transportation business in earnest.
And now they can't wait to make things even worse. I ride commuter trains to and from work (VRE in Virginia and MARC in Maryland). On the way home the other day there were 4 or 6 TSA rent-a-cops hanging around the platform at my Alexandria VA station yukking it up, doing nothing in particular.
Now, my wife and I, and everyone else at that station, are able to pull away from the station parking lot and leave. My fellow citizens and I have been doing this every GD day for the last who-knows-how-many years. Yet these TSA goons, maybe out of boredom, probably out of a desire to be the alpha-males, decided it was their duty to teach us stupid peons how to pull out of the parking lot. They actually took it upon themselves to get into the lot and direct traffic. The result? It took us twice as long to get out of there. F***ing morons...