Why won't my vehicle shift to higher speeds?

What is your question?

Trans has a problem coming out of low start-up range. Takes a long time to accelerate in the lower gears. When trying to get to highway cruising speeds, it slowly accelerates to 55 MPH and locks into that speed, not going any higher. Almost like cruise control is controlling the throttle. The RPM does NOT go over 2200 and when placed in neutral the RPM's slowly climbs to 5000 and tops out there. On rare occasions (1 out of 50 times) the engine RPMs seems to break out and I can go to higher speeds. New tranny needed or servicing?