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I go from DC to Boston weekly and couldn't disagree more. The NE Regional or Acela add, all things considered, anywhere from a 4x - 8x time multiplier over air travel, and is about double the cost on average.

Even when I was going DC > NYC years back it was barely worth the trouble, and still more than flying, only benefit being you land right in the middle of NYC and don't have the nightmare transit from NYC area airports.

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By the time you add airport parking and transport from the airport to the city (unless you take the subway) it's break-even on price for DC->NYC. It's easily break-even on timing given that front door to train in Union Station is 15 minutes, and, as you point out, you're dropped in the center of Manhattan.

DC->Boston full trip would obviously be insane - it's 6 1/2 hours even on Acela. But, probably preferable to driving.

I'm not saying there aren't things to like about air travel, especially if you have an axe to grind. Definitely faster, prices are competitive, and they probably innovate faster too given much higher sales volume. But I would say overall I prefer the Amtrak experience, especially if time is not a bounding factor. And it's not always an either-or. I mostly take Amtrak from BWI to Union Station, because flying out of Baltimore-BWI is much cheaper than Dulles-IAD or Reagan-DCA.

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