You remember Amtrak, right? The United States' national passenger rail service? Turns out no one knows what to do with it, and nearly every suggestion involves either cutting it or killing it.

And those "choices" don't make sense. Amtrak ridership is actually on the rise, and the coming end of the cheap oil age makes it even more important to invest in alternative transportation systems, including passenger rail. When deployed intelligently, it moves more people per energy use more efficiently.

Except, Amtrak, through a combination of management failures and disinvestment, is in no position to capitalize on concerns about growing highway traffic congestion, high gas prices and energy crunches.

The Washington Post notes that in Europe it's a completely different situation: "British train interests have just thrown an additional $13.5 billion into its side of the already popular Eurostar, which now zips between London and Paris in just two hours and 15 minutes. Launched with appropriate pomp and circumstance three weeks ago, the new, improved Eurostar is 30 minutes faster than Amtrak's Acela, which requires two hours and 45 minutes to ply a similar distance between New York and Washington."

One point the Post makes is that Amtrak is most popular in highly traveled corridors. That makes sense. Perhaps Amtrak should forget trying to be a "national" passenger rail service and instead be financially and managerially rearranged into a regional system serving the major metro hubs.

This kind of intercity rail would go a long way toward curbing congestion and speeding people to their destinations. Unfortunately, Amtrak has been none-too-innovative. As the Post puts it: "Amtrak's often less-than-stellar management never focused on the real opportunities: high-speed, short-haul intercity service where trains are more practical than planes and intermodal operations that could connect city centers to their increasingly distant airports."

Perhaps Amtrak will be put on the right course some day. Even though it isn't where it should be, we're going to need to figure out what to do with its infrastructure as energy shortages become more common.