In the dining car, we sampled newly upgraded menus, opting for flat-iron steak and roasted guinea hen. Although hardly gourmet, the meals were fine, akin to what you'd be served at a local diner. The setting, however—a comfortable table with a constantly changing view—couldn't be beat. There is something immensely calming about clattering rhythmically along the tracks, hearing the sound of the soulful whistle and watching waiters respond with their practiced dance to the pitch and yaw of the train.

My wife and I had time for leisurely chats with each other and with other passengers and Amtrak employees. We played Texas hold 'em on the fold-down table and drank wine as sunlight streamed through the hardwood forest, creating a strobelike effect in the car. After dinner, our pleasant porter folded the couch into a bed and made it up. Forty-eight hours after leaving Montana, we arrived in Washington, D.C. A left out the front door of the gloriously restored Union Station and a short walk brought us to the office of Alexander Kummant.

A former Union Pacific vice president, Kummant was appointed president of Amtrak in 2006 by President Bush. In his spacious office decorated with pictures of trains, Kummant described how new life is being breathed into Amtrak's once-moribund business. "We're seeing phenomenal demand on all routes," he said. "Customers are beating a path to our doors." Travel on Amtrak's long-distance routes has climbed steadily over the last few years, to about 3.8 million riders. Overall, Amtrak ridership grew 6.3 percent to 26 million last year, and so far this year it's up nearly 11 percent.

Apart from the skyrocketing cost of oil and the horror show at the airports, Kummant told me, the rebirth of the downtowns in cities around the country—including Denver, Memphis, and Sacramento—is driving business. "People are looking for better ways to move from city center to city center," he said. "They don't want to sit in traffic for two hours anymore."

So far, however, consumer demand in the United States has had little impact: The fact is that the U.S. passenger rail system, compared with those in most other developed countries, is limping along. Across the pond, for instance, high-speed trains are humming in France, Germany, Spain, and Switzerland, and new and expanded routes, faster travel times, and more comfortable trains have given the airlines stiff competition (see "Continental Connections," page 52). The TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse), France's "old" electric high-speed train, travels at an average speed of 200 miles per hour (it went 357 miles per hour last year, breaking the rail speed record). The AGV (Automotrice à Grande Vitesse), a new train being built in France, will travel at speeds of up to 224 miles per hour while consuming 30 percent less electricity; it is expected to begin service in 2010. Across Europe, 2,600 miles of high-speed train lines are under construction and more than 5,300 miles are planned. China is expected to lay some 6,000 miles of high-speed track within the next 15 years.