As someone who abhors air travel — at best I relegate it to one of life’s necessary evils — and is currently unable to drive himself anywhere, I much prefer traveling by rail whenever it’s reasonable to do so. The often ridiculous expense is a trade-off between comfort and — thanks to living within the Northeast Corridor — time.

Taking a long-distance trip by rail has long been an ambition of mine, if not cross country to San Francisco for example, then at least somewhere halfway. To Chicago perhaps. (I’m long overdue for a trip out there.)

Sadly, as GOOD Magazine’s Ben Jervey points out rail travel in the U.S., at least outside the Northeast Corridor, is hardly efficient nor practical for most people.