I would suggest that trains would probably be the better alternative, with similar features.

Same problem - because of the time spent on the train the airplane is still cheaper, even before you account for people willing to spend extra for the faster flight.

Well, if you take countries like Japan or China with their high speed railways, it takes also less time to check-in, board, the most basic security checks; moreover, often train stations are located in the city, as opposed to airports outside. So it is not a clear cut.

Even for fairly long distances, the train can be time competitive.

A couple months ago I took a train from Tokyo to Fukuoka (around 600 miles driving distance). The train took 5 hours station to station -- I was staying near Shinagawa station so walked into the station 15 minutes before departure, and walked out of Hakata station in downtown Fukuoka 5 hours after departure.

If I flew from Haneda, it would have been a 2 hour flight, plus 45 minutes to get to the airport 45 minutes before the flight and 30 minutes from Fukuoka airport to Hakata, or about 4 hours total. Add about 45 minutes if flying out of Narita since it's farther from downtown.

But the train is around twice as expensive.

600 miles is not long distance. Trains still work well at that distance. New York to LA is 2400 miles. New York to London is 3400 miles. New York City to India is 7000 miles.

That's what I meant by "fairly long haul" (I thought the distance I was talking about was clear from the context).. It'd be hard for a 200 or even 300mph train to compete with a 550mph plane on a 2400 mile journey.

NYC to India makes no sense in this context since a train is never going to feasible for trans ocean transport. You may as well mention the 250,000 mile route to the moon.

If I were able to go overnight, I wouldn't care... show up in Phoenix at 9-10pm, wake up wherever the next morning. There are advantages to train. I hate the cramped space on airplanes... I'm fat and tall, it's uncomfortable to say the least, irrespective of how you may feel in terms of discriminating against fat people. I've often chose to spend adjacent days driving half way across country instead of flying a few times.

Airships are also less energy efficient, as was pointed out by von Karmen and Gabrielli in 1950.

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/helium-hokum...