Have you ridden on Amtrak trains before? In my experience riding Amtrak trains all around the Northeast Corridor I've never seen their trains smell like urine or vomit. The experience is less like city subways, regional rail, or buses, and more like what you would expect from airplanes (although with more space and without the seatbelts).
The primary problem with Amtrak is that they rarely compete with air travel in terms of price/speed. I prefer them to air travel anyway though because I rarely care about speed and the (effective) absence of the TSA more than makes up for it. (Also last-minute (literally, purchased minutes before departure) Amtrak tickets are more affordable than last minute plane tickets.)
I think that romanticising train travel is a good approach to attacking their speed disadvantage (though I think that working on reducing fares and increasing coverage are also essential).
> The experience is less like city subways, regional rail, or buses, and more like what you would expect from airplanes (although with more space and without the seatbelts).
The NRE is more like what flying business class used to be 15 years ago. Plenty of space, clean, relaxing lighting, a snack bar, etc. Most airplanes these days are filthy (they scrimp on cleaning between flights), don't run air conditioning enough on hot days, not to mention cramped.
The primary problem with Amtrak is that they rarely compete with air travel in terms of price/speed. I prefer them to air travel anyway though because I rarely care about speed and the (effective) absence of the TSA more than makes up for it. (Also last-minute (literally, purchased minutes before departure) Amtrak tickets are more affordable than last minute plane tickets.)
I think that romanticising train travel is a good approach to attacking their speed disadvantage (though I think that working on reducing fares and increasing coverage are also essential).