Train travel in the USA can be a challenge, the trains tend to be slow, the equipment is often old. There are limited routes; away from the upper east coast and California, service is very limited.
BUT!
The people are nice and the price can be very attractive.
I recently booked tickets to go to New York later this spring, made hotel reservations, went to email someone special that we had made plans and realized I had train tickets to go up on a Monday, and hotel reservations starting on Tuesday. I didn't want to add a hotel night, so I endeavoured to change the train tickets.
I should be able to do it online, but the reservations computer was running so slow that I kept getting kicked out. I called, argued with the automated system that couldn't understand the difference between my saying "D" and "E", finally I was sent onto a human being.
And She was SO NICE and HELPFUL. She encountered the same slow reservations system, but she could stay on until she was able to make the change. She kept coming on and saying I am making progress, please hang on, I am sorry the system is running slow for some reason. In the end the Tuesday train was the same price as the Monday train, no charge for the change (try that with airlines.) And round trip was $88 per person. If I drove to New York, I couldn't park my car for four days for that, it might cost that much per day to park.* On this end the train station is a mile from home. In New York, you arrive in the heart of Manhattan. The airports in NY are an hour from where you want to be.
*The first time I was in San Francisco, I scored a deal on a nice hotel for like $99 for one night, and paid $60 to park a rental car three blocks away. I have never driven in SF again.
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