For us, the cost of a sleeper car was the same price as flying, it's a no brainer really.

I don't know, even Boston gets pretty dead late at night...

I think trains between major cities would work, the train from Portland to Boston ain't to bad, only slightly more than the coach and much nicer. The problem is getting to Portland station is a ball ache and there aren't enough trains through out the day to make it that practical.

It would be great if there was more train service down to say RI, but then you have the problem of how do you get anywhere past the station, one solution would be more zipcar type of services in those areas I suppose if buses and local trains/trams aren't popular.

It probably won't make sense going across country, nor in certain areas, but it's got to be a big improvement in linking up more urban areas with each other.

Anyway, it shouldn't take a hour to drive 13 miles into Boston in the morning and the commuter rail shouldn't take 50 mins either.

I think it would be great if they implemented a high speed rail in California. Friends came from San Diego to San Jose the other week and it took them 13 hours. It takes nearly 10 hours between LA and SJ because they have to stop constantly for freight trains and smoke breaks.

If the train was fast I would use it regularly for trips to LA as it would be much better for a weekend to do that rather than drive.