In the NE corridor, Amtrak (as bad as it is) is the fastest means of transport from city center to city center. A car is close but just getting into NYC is so slow that Amtrak will win in almost every case.
If for some reason you wanted to go from the DC suburbs of Virginia to Queens a plane might be okay, but realistically planes waste so much time on security and boarding that itβs not worth it.
>A car is close but just getting into NYC is so slow that Amtrak will win in almost every case.
I take Amtrak into NY even though it's basically an hour in the wrong direction to drive to Route 128 station (a suburban station south of Boston). But I do it because I find driving into Manhattan so unpleasant in spite of probably being a bit faster.
Trains vs. planes make sense for the two ends of the Northeast Corridor especially if you're going downtown to downtown. They really don't on a price or time basis for the whole route.
Train is often more expensive than budget airlines in Europe too. (And the Shinkansen in Japan isn't cheap either.) Long distance train can be a comfortable way to travel but economy (and, often, speed) aren't really why you choose long distance rail much of the time.
