the United States has a functioning railroad system outside of passenger service
“We have a functioning car if you ignore that the gas pedal doesn’t work!”
Passenger rail is part of our rail system AND the topic of OP for anyone who can read. Its terribleness is in many ways the freight systems fault (at least Amtrak specifically) so it absolutely loses points on the functional scale since usually things that function well don’t actively damage other related things
“We have a functioning car if you ignore that the gas pedal doesn’t work!”
Passenger rail is part of our rail system AND the topic of OP for anyone who can read. Its terribleness is in many ways the freight systems fault (at least Amtrak specifically) so it absolutely loses points on the functional scale since usually things that function well don’t actively damage other related things