Well there’s your problem!
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Dallas<–>Houston will start construction next year. It’s being built by JR, so it’s a full shinkansen.
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I paid extra for a megabus ticket with a table once, it was super uncomfortable and cramped. Amtrak (non first class just generic) was much roomier. I felt like I could really veg out.
It’s not perfect but I think it’s way better than a bus or a plane, the only issue is lack of service and speed
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It’s a bit of a modified Shinkansen to deal with the local regulatory environment, so it’s not quite the same. There’s a good Japan Railway Journal episode on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw41m2pE60U
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Can’t we just transpute into Europeans or Japanese, and assume their tech?
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American and Canadian trains are the best in the world. We just use them to move stuff. North American rail moves 12x per capita-Ton-Mile than does the EU as a whole, and 9x that of Germany, which is the best in Europe.
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Thats not a cheap train by any means, not that i would ever fly round the uk its just not that big, but you can do Liverpool to London 1st class for £45 quid if you book the day it comes out, i once got it for £11 quid in 1st class!
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One thing that might hopefully improve American trains is that the old FRA safety standards, which required trains to be much more heavily built than they are in other countries, have been brought more into line with standard practice in Europe
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Rail service here in the states is geared towards freight as passenger service is just not worth it.
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Hey, aren’t you Benito Mussolini, conqueror of Abyssinia and former dictator of Italy?
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It is just common courtesy; one fascist dictator to another. 
The flipside is, I guess, that in some countries, like the UK, it isn’t worth the palaver swapping from truck to train and back to truck again for delivery. The distances don’t tend to be huge, so freight tends to move on the roads.
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The main reason why trains are of poor quality in the US is because the Republicans hate Amtrak and have been trying for decades to starve it to death by slowly choking off funding. GW Bush once submitted a budget proposal that included $0 in funding for Amtrak! So that kind of tells you where their priorities lie. Despite that, Amtrak is supposedly one of the most efficient rail systems in the world (I think in terms of rail workers vs. number of passengers served).
In addition, I’ll take Amtrak over any European or Japanese train (both of which I have extensive experience with) simply because it’s so easy to meet and chat with other passengers. I’ve met some of the most interesting and memorable people ever on Amtrak. That just doesn’t happen in other parts of the world that I’ve taken the train in.
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Acela excepted, freight has the right of way on American railroads. A trip on Amtrak usually involves being pulled over to a siding at least once to let a freight train go by.
Combine that with low federal funding for passenger service and crumbling infrastructure and people stop using it. It’s a shame.
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I took a first-class trip on the Coast Starlight from Portland down to Oxnard CA, and it was a nice experience. It was the very last trip for their Pacific Parlour cars, so it was packed with a lot of train geeks being all wistful at the wine-tastings. Sad to see those go.
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May well be talking outta my ass here but I got the impression that travel by train really started to die off after WW II here in the states.
The reason: New “Super highways” and our love of cars/wide open spaces.
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I’ve only taken the Capitol Corridor and found it quite comfortable…but then my standard of comparison was BART.
Also, everything is more comfortable with a wine bar.
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I took the Coast Starlight from Emeryville to Santa Barbara with my family this past summer. It was amazing. It took nine hours, but the scenery was beautiful, the seats were comfortable, and we brought our own food to have with the watery cocktails. You could go to the view car and just stare out at the passing hills and then, the ocean. The train stops right in the middle of Santa Barbara, steps from the beach. As far as travel goes, it was quite stress free and I’d gladly do it again.
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Apart from the whole “stuck in traffic on the Jersey turnpike for 3 hours”
Took Bolt bus to and from DC once. Never again
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