I only used US trains outside of major metro areas in USA once. It took absolute ages to get from one side of the state to the other. An Amtrak employee explained to me why this was - cargo takes priority on the rails in the state I was in and this is why we spent sometimes half an hour just sitting on a side track waiting for an oncoming cargo train to pass. I will never use the rail system again while this is in place. It doesn't make sense to do so.