I love rail travel when I’m in the EU, but it simply doesn’t make sense for the US and its geography.
Here’s my wild opinion so feel free to disagree and point out the shortcomings… Air travel could be a lot nicer, like the days of TWA and on plane lounges; and before you got tased for getting out of your seat to walk around.
But just like European trains don’t only run from Lisbon to Moscow, US trains could very easily set up popular routes from small, medium, and large cities that are around 100-500miles from each other. The new Borealis route, which is nothing more than an additional short run of the Empire Builder, from Chicago to Minneapolis started turning a profit a few days after it started running.
What do you get when you add up all the obvious city-pair routes in all regions? You get a transcontinental system that while likely not most people’s first choice for a NYC-LA trip, is possible without being painful. Not unlike the system that existed before the subsidized highways destroyed the private passenger rail system in the US. We know it’s possible here because it already existed.
We flew home -- and even though the flight time was about 5.5 hours - it was stressful and a let down. Your family's milage may vary.
If trains were more prevalent, each would become more of a hub and cities would grow around them.
There are no airports situated on top of said landmarks.