Texas is a long, uncomfortable haul in general. The year I did this crossing was 1994. Witnessed racism, religion gone wrong and malicious violence in more than one local personality jumping on for a town to town hop.

New Orleans coach was 2004. The rowdiness, smells and movement in the train gave me the only migraine I've ever had. I could barely give directions to the cab driver for my hotel and slept 16 hours.

I've done DC<->ATL on both coach and sleeper. Sleeper's nicer, obv, but coach is really fine. It's not super crowded, and the amount of legroom is ridiculous compared to an airplane. Even though it takes 4X as long as a plane, it's overnight, so it doesn't really seem too long at all.