Right. But you can't take a train that doesn't exist. it's hard to take one that is running once a day...at 5am. (Not making that up...I had to get that train the day after a busy conference when completely exhausted).

And then there's the fact that the freight company owns the tracks and most tracks are only one in each direction. Because the freight company owns the tracks they demand priority for slow freight trains, slowing passenger service further. Trains in the U.S. outside the Northeast Corridor (DC through New York to Boston) seldom run on time.

I love the train, hence the 5am train after the exhausting conference, but the U.S. as a whole does not love trains and is in this unfortunate spiral of people don't want their tax money spent on trains because trains suck and because there isn't enough money being spent...

The only "high speed" rail service in the U.S. is Acela, which runs, as mentioned, between Washington, D.C. and Boston. These trains top out at 150 miles per hour...but can only reach these speeds over a TINY amount of the route because the track isn't up to it. They're working on increasing it to 160 mph. Compare with the TGV top speed of 200 mph, for much longer periods of time, or the Shinkansen topping out at 199 mph.

And many American towns simply do not have train stations, with the only common carrier connection being long distance buses, which...ya know...those are dreary pretty much anywhere.

I do prefer taking the train, but it's seldom an option here between the poor infrastructure and the huge distances.