[gautamnarula]

In that specific case, it's hard to justify taking Acela over a bus. Acela is at best an hour faster and something like 4x the cost (or more) It is certainly more comfortable, but unless we get true high speed rail that shortens the travel time between Boston and NYC to < 2 hours I can't ever justify personally paying for it. I've only ever taken Acela between Boston and NYC when an organization I was working for was willing to foot the bill.

In Europe, I took trains that hit speeds of 195 MPH for long stretches. That sort of speed would make rail a real viable third way between car/bus and air for long distance travel.

[ohyes]

I’ve only taken the normal train between the two cities. For the regular train when you plan 2 weeks out the prices were comparable. The slow train is only 1/2 hour slower than the accela. I found it much more comfortable than the bus and easier than driving.

The main thing to me is the comfort level and that I can do other things than concentrate on driving.

[bobthepanda]

I-95 congestion is so variable that you can’t depend on the bus if you have a meeting to make, though. I was once stuck on a Megabus that took 9 hours to get from College Park to the border of Maryland and Delaware.