I've always felt that a good deal of the disdain for Amtrak (or passenger rail in general) comes from it being an unknown. Essentially the attempts to save it came about too late and by then what was saved was no longer attractive or of use to large swaths of the country.

Imagine had rail been "rescued" in 25 years earlier, in 1946.

So many towns would have still had their train. So many states would have had something to fight for, to save.

By the time it was saved (and frankly cut to hell as a part of that saving) it was barely a memory to those towns and states and they had learned to live without it.

All of which doesn't affect my personal belief that it is of value (like roads and schools) and if it was more universally available it would have far greater support (across the political spectrum).