The reason trains receded from the scene is because air travel is faster from major hub to hub. It still is, if you discount how much time for a lower tract inspection to prove for the umpteenth time you aren’t a muslim terrorist— done at great massive public expense. Another reason trains receded is because public subsidy of air travel became the politician’s dream from the late 50’s on, in providing “service” and pork to their constituents— which is still true (see Murtha and his airport with 16 passengers a day!). I can’t stand either trains or air travel. I take the train on one route, for family- if I have the time and because it is cheap. If you are on vacation and have time, train might be OK. On leased tracks, freight rail has the priority and is the reason Amtrak is late. Late at night in SC, we stop on a siding and let an express freight come through. Speed for passenger trains is restricted vs. speeds of freight rail on the same set of tracks for the same reason. The train is frequently late. Hassle wise though it has a lot to be said for it vs. Atlanta’s airport.
I like the line elsewhere here about choo-choo marxists— it is so true. Remember Al Gore wants to reduce urban sprawl with the “Euro” way (it’s worked so well for them) of cramming us other people (not living on his plantation) into “sustainable” communities. For that read: a rabbit warren of condo nightmares with no equity. Government has done nothing right, not trains and not airlines either. A well funded, well thought out private consortium of modern passenger trains, if it would be allowed, could add dedicated rail lines in the same rights of way of freight lines and do the job right. It will be a long time before that ever happens. For my money I’ll take my RV on vacation, stop anywhere, rest anywhere, eat anywhere. You’re right- forest, meet the trees. Never forget also that it was a progressive, Teddy Roosevelt that put both parks and trains on the map.
Only because the politicians made it that way, though. Air traffic control and airports are financed by fuel taxes, ticket taxes and special fees collected on everything aviation related that is sold to mechanics, airplane owners, and the traveling public, even if the majority of general aviation traffic never, ever talks to a controller or uses the system, other than a public airport.
For incidence, you simply cannot legally put an AC/Delco alternator on an airplane engine, even though it's the same thing that is on a Chevy, unless it has FAA/PMA stamped on it. Get caught doing so and you'll have your airplane impounded, your mechanic will lose his license and stiff fines (more revenue for the air traffic control system) will result. Those six little letters triple the price of parts, even though it is exactly the same part. I can cite literally dozens of examples of this kind of stuff. These fees paid to the FAA to allow the use of these common parts are but a portion of what is used to finance the entire system and only the people using the system are paying for it.
If we had a modern air traffic control system, one like the FAA has been promising for nigh onto 25 years now, instead of one that dates to the mid 1960's that is being held together with bubble gum and bailing wire there would be absolutely no comparison in the efficiency and cost per seat mile of train travel versus air travel. Not even close. The secret is to get the gubmint out of it entirely. To quote Ronaldus Magnus, "Gubmint isn't the solution to the problem. Gubmint is the problem".
There are dozens of studies that have been done on this topic. Even with all the gubmint intervention flying is by far the most efficient means of travel and the costs are going down as navigation switches from the old VOR system to GPS. Over 75% of the species on the planet fly instead of building trains. Only one species builds trains and apparently only a few members of that species realize how inefficient a mode of travel it really is.
Hassle wise though it has a lot to be said for it vs. Atlanta’s airport.
One only need look as far as who is running Atlanta's airport to fully understand why it is not being run efficiently. The nepotism is rampant at Hartsfield. Ditto the TSA. Typical gubmint employee attitude. When I traveled to Israel back in the 90's several times for Nortel it was during a time when bus bombings were common. The airlines ran the security back then and they most certainly were profiling their passengers. It was safe, fast and efficient. I never waited in a security line more than 5 minutes on any of the flights I took into or out of Israel in several trips I made there. Not sure if they still do the security now now, I don't believe El Al has had any hijackings or other major security issues in over 30 years.