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If more people took a chance and road the trains more often then maybe the govt. would invest in more infrastructure.
The Auto train from Va to Florida is booked solid so some people are seeing the benifit of rail travel.
Right now there are two trains daily each way between NY and Florida and if more people wanted to go by rail, service would be increased.
Many of the long distance trucking companies have switched to rails because it is more economical so the freight rails have increased in traffic.
The only reason the rail service is better in Europe is because the people have not abandoned the train for their cars like they did here in the fifties.
I think voting choices have more to do with it than transportation choices :-)
When it takes 6 1/2 hours to get to DC from here, it doesn't much matter what happens after that.
Then write/call your Congress critter and ask for either dedicated passenger rail or increased fines/enforcement on the freight rail lines for delays they impose upon Amtrak. Amtrak only owns the railways in the Northeastern Corridor (from DC onwards) - the rest of the US is owned by the freight rail lines whose dispatchers will routinely shunt passenger traffic onto sidings in favor of their freight traffic. It'd be like if you were directed to pull onto the shoulder every time a tractor-trailer was behind you, or if air traffic controllers gave takeoff/landing priority to cargo aircraft. If either of those situations occurred, would as many people roadtrip? Would as many people fly given that departure/arrival times would become meaningless?
Which Wilmington? NC? No direct train service there, unfortunately. However, Amtrak offers a shuttle bus between Wilmington and Wilson, where one can board the Palmetto, which runs between New York City and Miami, and the Carolinian, which runs between Charlotte and New York City.
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