Just for the fun of it, I looked to see about taking Amtrak. It would cost me $840.00 a person, and take 5 days to get there, and involve 3 transfers!!! We have only 7 days, it would take 10 days to take the train, and that would not include any vacation time in Salt Lake City.
Compare that to $294.00, 7 1/2 hours, one transfer.
Obviously taking the Amtrak cross country (or half way cross country) could be a vacation on it's own, it is not a viable alternative to driving or flying.
Just for the fun of it, I looked to see about taking Amtrak. It would cost me $840.00 a person, and take 5 days to get there, and involve 3 transfers!!!
Compare that to $294.00, 7 1/2 hours, one transfer.
I just checked Amtrak for a one-way ticket, Wisconsin Dells to Salt Lake...
$310 for an 83 hour trip, with transfers in Portland and Sacramento.
Not as bad as you suggest, but a quick look at an Amtrak route map should have reminded you that transferring in Portland and Sacramento is probably not the best way to go. (My guess is that they probably outsourced the computer route calculator to India or China), But anyway, click on "Multi=City" and scedule your trip : Wisconsin Dells to Chicago to Salt Lake.
That one comes up $190 and 38 hours of train travel.
(Plus a 22 hour layover in Chicago.)
That's quite a bit better, although still not competitive with air travel.
However, I really don't expect it to be for a 1200 trip.
Over that long distance, a jetliner would even be faster than maglev.
But that just illustrates the opportunity that exists for upgrading Amtrak service.
Older discontinued routes can be restored to provide more direct service and more frequent scheduling to drasticly reduce transit time.
We have to build infrastructure for the future,
Especially now that BP screwed up the offshore drilling... the cost of air travel is going to skyrocket.
