I forgot to mention that I was almost hit by a car after I got off the bus.

You should try to avoud this, if you can.

Especially when they cost as much or as more as the plane -- there needs to be a tradeoff.

I don't want to ride American trains. I want to ride European trains. In America. It's a Thing. I want the Platonic not-quite-Ideal of trains, in which there is reasonable cleanliness, reasonable frequency, and reasonable price.

Amtrak, in my experience, has sucked in customer service, cleanliness, and reliability.

I wasn't even considering those (I'm not sure if Amtrak was the train we took from Montreal to NY those times). Cost and duration, which are much bigger changes for them to make, are my primary hangups.

I do like the train. But time is a valuable commodity for me. Money's not unimportant either. Cost-effective high-speed rail. Bring it on.

Amtrak, in my experience, has sucked in customer service, cleanliness, and reliability.

I think they've been improving, although I haven't ridden them enough in the last ten years to make a statistically significant sample. But in the trips I've taken in the last few years they've been clean and had adequate customer service. And the last half-dozen trains I've taken have been on time.

Also, sleeper cars rock.

I took the Capitol Limited between DC and Chicago a few times a year when I was in college. It was great. I get the time issue, but I was trading efficiency for stress reduction. It was worth taking a 17-hour train ride to avoid O'Hare. Especially at Thanksgiving.

Plus, at both ends the train stations were more conveniently located than the airports were. The train still took longer than a flight would have, of course, but door-to-door it was a choice between 20 relatively pleasant hours and 10 stressful hours.

Strega! I need your address. Please to send?

Amtrak, in my experience, has sucked in customer service, cleanliness, and reliability.

The Downeaster from Boston to Portland is quite nice, but it does take 2 3/4 hours. However, perception-wise even the most efficient bus trip on the same distance, which is around 2 hours, feels twice as long.

Plus - bar car and the beers aren't priced much more than they would be at a bar.

I routinely took the Cardinal from Indiana-DC and the Montrealer from DC-White River Junction in college. Unfortunately, that was 20 years ago and neither route now exists; the Cardinal goes far north and the Montrealer is mostly by bus due to track conditions.

I want high-speed trains, too, but the conventional wisdom in Congress seems to be that trains are a boondoggle while roads and airports are an infrastructure investment. Sigh.

I want high-speed trains, too, but the conventional wisdom in Congress seems to be that trains are a boondoggle while roads and airports are an infrastructure investment. Sigh.

That's because Amtrak owns the trains but not the tracks, which is akin to having the government running the bus companies while someone else owns and maintains the roadways privately.

I was upgraded to the Acela on my trip back up to NYC (much nicer than last year's solution to post-Thanksgiving overbooking, which was to shunt us onto a NJ Transit train that they'd hauled down to DC -- 4 hours on a commuter train with no bathrooms or cafe car = HELL), and it was incredibly comfortable. Go go team business class.