RE Amtrak, to Stash's point about people in Washington trying to kill it, very true however some of the regional Amtrak services are very succesful and growing. I.e. Caltrain (contracted to Amtrak), Amtrak California service, Amtrak Northwest, the Surfliners, etc. All are very viable and likely wouldn't be too severely affected in the unlikely event the Beltway boys terminated Amtrak intercity entirely. The states that are involved with the regional services are very committed.
Also similar to Stash, a friend of mine who spent years in freight for a number of the big western carriers switched back to Amtrak a few years ago and is very happy. Some people might deride Amtrak as not "real railroading" but at least the pay's good, you often know exactly when you have to work well in advance and the labor situation isn't deteriorating by the day.