I live in Japan but was thinking of taking a Greyhound for a 2-hour or so ride during a US trip but a friend strongly advised against, the presumably exaggerated analogy was getting herpes just riding it. Another friend more familiar than me with the recent US generally concurred.

So I assume that's one reason to take an Uber? I was going to look into a charter anyways based on that advice.

Amtrak I'm more familiar with but at least in California it's just incredibly slow.