I will be there in Portland in about 2 hours. This beats the pants off driving, and if you include the hassle of checking in early, security time, etc, will also beat the time for air travel.
And all of this with existing trains, no bullet trains, no mag lev, nothing fancy.
For this you get to enjoy:
- not having to drive - HUUUUUGE comfortable seats (take that, regional jets!) - relaxed security, no draconian rules - 1/4 to 1/3 the cost of flying, can probably beat the cost of driving if you were traveling alone - board at train station which is neatly downtown in most American cities - takes you right downtown at your destination in most American cities
What's not to love? Trains are by far my favorite way to travel, and IMHO the majority of problems preventing trains from being the choice for mid-range routes is purely systematic and organizational, and has relatively little to do with technology.
The legroom on a standard Eurostar seat isn't any better than a plane either.
The Shinkansen, however, really is the gold standard for train travel in the world still: fast, convenient (no security), and frequent.
So much for being inexpensive.
Rail is space efficient and can be energy efficient (if you can get the ridership), but those aren't the only important costs.