Passenger rail can certainly be improved but it will never be what it once was. At one time many small towns in NJ like Neshanic Station had rail service, Both the CNJ and Lackawanna had stations there that still exist. Same with Flemington and Lambertville. Across the river Easton and New Hope PA had service. You could reach national service from all those branch lines. Even big college towns like State College, PA are without rail service.
Today we struggle just to get rail service back to the large cities like Louisville, Nashville, Columbus and Chattenooga to name a few. Part of the problem can probably be handled by the expansion of intercity rail and the National Network combined but it will take many years just to get back to where passenger rail was pre Amtrak.