:-D My comment was a bit of a wink directed at train superfan Willie!
Having visited Rochester a good many times on business ( not so much lately, ahem), I did like a colleague’s house on the Finger Lakes. I never got to Niagara Falls but I’m thinking about making a family tourist trip up there this summer. Maybe a swing by the Thousand Islands too.
Since New York taxes me for working in NYC, I might as well try to get something back for it!
Ok, so I overstated the situation. Finger Lakes are nice, Niagara Falls is nice, Thousand Islands is nice, Adarondacks is nice ... but more as a matter of you’re already in the region so you might as well enjoy it. Sure, if you’re in NYC then head up the 90/87/81 and see what you can see. They’re not, however, worth installing a billion-dollar high-speed rail for; if nothing else, even if you used it to “get there”, you’d still need a car and several hours drive to get there from the train.