> even if you take the craziness of the UK train system which is much costlier than mainland Europe (London to Newcastle costs more than London to Brussels)

Not if you book in advance; a single journey London -> Newcastle in 3 months will cost £29.10, vs. traveling today which would cost £121.00.

For regular trips that is true, and great. For more urgent trips or trips where the date may be flexible you are kind of stuck paying that huge cost most the time.

I used to live in Cambridge and had a similar problem on my frequent visits to Newcastle which I couldn't pin a date down for.

Pareto optimally, perhaps the European train experience is superior to the American one.

However, Bill Maher begs to differ on his recent train trip experience from Stockholm to Oslo which he equates to Amtrak [1]

[1] Lewis Black and Bill Maher: Why we're bachelors

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8osINepuw8&t=2m43s

Scandinavia is not really where you want to go in Europe for good intercity trains (its commuter rail is another story). The connection between Sweden and Norway is especially notorious for being ancient and slow, with plans to upgrade it being discussed for many years. The modern lines are the Great Belt route east-to-west across Denmark, and the triangle in southern Sweden connecting Malmö, Gothenburg, and Stockholm. And even those are not up to French, Spanish, or German standards.

Some maps: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sweden_railways.png https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Danmark_maks._hastig...