This. America is huge. We could be doing so much cooler things with trains, and the experience can be SO nice. It's a beautiful country to watch going by from t

This. America is huge. We could be doing so much cooler things with trains, and the experience can be SO nice. It's a beautiful country to watch going by from the window of a train. Even if we didn't end up with trains that went way FASTER than other methods of transport, we could be doing so much better. I saw someone advocating for a line along the Northeast corridor departing every hour in both directions. Where I live we've got the Vermonter, stopping at a (admittedly charming) antique station in my town. It comes through once a day, in each direction. That requires that any trip has to include an overnight stay. If that train ran like a metro train and came through hourly, I'd be constantly travelling to places like NYC and Philly or even Baltimore, to do stuff, because I would be able to come home again once I was done, even if it was late.