Yeah, the U.S. has something like 140,000 miles of railroads, 14x that of of a country like the UK, but because the U.S. is so massive, it is just inconvenient for most travelers, so it gets used mostly for freight shipping. (Also most of it is not high speed rails, so for many, it doesn't make the trip for efficient time and or price wise, knowing they will likely still need to rent a car when they get to their destination)

When/where was this? I thought the system I had in east anglia was standard across the country

I also had this format but apparently it's not usual. I'm guessing by your username you're Scottish, or at least Northern

Yeah Seattle loves their light rail. Way more cities in America have commuter rail than you'd think