Every week I commute from NJ to Boston. A jet does the trip in 50 minutes. The Amtrak Express from Newark to Boston is 4 hours. Yet when you take into account the delayed flights, the security, the fact that I cannot sit down and work for most of the time during my air trip, etc... the train wins out every time. It seems to be on time most of the time. And the ride is smooth with free wifi. And sometime I just stare at the beautiful New England scenery.

The actual train trip from NYC to DC is 3-3.5 hours each way, and both ends are smack in the middle of the city.

If you’re flying, Dulles and BWI are 45 minutes from downtown DC (or more); ditto for the NYC end, and you need to factor in another hour+ for security. I think air travel might end up slower—-and it’s certainly less pleasant.

> and you need to factor in another hour+ for security

Just an anecdote, but with TSA Pre, I haven’t needed more than 15 minutes for security, flying domestically and internationally several times per year for the past few years.

I was in that boat for a while, but it's been rocky recently at a few airports that I fly in and out of as the number of Pre users have gone up and airports have toyed with the idea of Pre only lines (which sometimes are far from where you actually want to be). I think it's coming back to normal, but there have been several times over the last year where I've considered using the regular line for the same of time.

> with TSA Pre, I haven’t needed more than 15 minutes for security

Same. With Clear, that goes down to 5 minutes tops. Add in airport lounges, and showing up a bit early goes from being a nuisance to a pleasure (or opportunity to be productive).

I’m a huge fan of trains, but they’re only marginally competitive for passengers in the Northeast.

At least for the north or south subset of the Northeast Corridor the type of transportation honestly boils down to preference. Train is in the comfortable but relatively pricey and slow end of the equation. I could drive from Central Mass to New York cheaper and faster than train but I hate doing that drive.

This probably depends a lot on exactly when/where you’re flying.

Even if it seemed true for me, I’m not sure I’d bet the price of a ticket (and my schedule) on it always working out.

At which airports? I've seen short precheck lines but I've also seen 1h+ lines.

This is similar to when my wife and I visit the UK, we usually do a week in the south and a week in Scotland. And we traditionally take the LNER between just because Getting to an airport will be a 45-60 minute cab or train, then dealing with security, baggage, etc, so all in all a 3.5-4 hour journey. London Kings Cross <-> Edinburgh Waverley is a 4-5 hour, usually OK train ride (if the A/C is working), and you get on and have wifi (sometimes), and can pull out your laptop and put it on a REAL table.

Okay but you're flying into DCA, not BWI or IAD, and from there it's a ~15 minute metro into the heart of the city.

Agree with you on the other points, though.

Also, for an airport you are looking at spending $30-50 just to get there in a taxi or Uber.

You usually arrive at the airport 60-90 minutes before a flight, vs 30 minutes before a train. And train station locations will give you a 30 minute advantage over airport locations. So really we're comparing 3.5-4.5 hrs for a flight vs 6.5 hours for a train. Trains are also a lot more comfortable, have charging points even in economy class, and don't charge baggage fees.

From a European perspective, arriving at the train station 30 minutes in advance sounds completely absurd. I'd say 10 minutes is much closer to the average here (Germany). I took Amtrak from DC to NYC once and the whole boarding process seemed needlessly time-wasting.

>vs 30 minutes before a train

wait, what? Why? Here as long as I'm there before it departs it's fine.

Got it off the Amtrak website.

Not if you are a regular traveler. In that case you have global entry and/or clear, and aren't checking a bag. Depending on the exact terminal you can get to the airport about 15 minutes before boarding, 45 minutes before listed departure. The bulk of the advantage is the location of the terminal stations, which is real but not as significant as it is being made out here. I mean maybe if you live right at Penn Station and your meeting is right by Union Station, but if you coming from, say, LIC and going to Georgetown, you may be happier with LGA and DCA than NYP and Union Station.

You're absolutely correct about the comfort points, but price should be just as strongly in the train's favor and it isn't.

> Not if you are a regular traveler

The regular travelers have voted in numbers for Amtrak between DC and NYC over air travel, preferring it for the last decade[0]. They have been growing the number of trips and have even been able to go further up market with the new Acela nonstop this year. The truth is, passengers are voting with their dollars for the train between NYC and DC.

[0] https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2014/11/why-more-nort...

NYC and DC don't really project to other metros. Travel to and from Penn Station vs the airports is a non-trivial consideration to passengers. It is expensive or time consuming or a PITA to travel to JFK/LGA/EWR on public transit with a bag. I lived in Brooklyn and made the NYC/DC commute 15 or so times a year for many years and that was a significant issue for me, it just wasn't cost or time effective to fly in _NYC_.

I now live in Maine and wouldn't consider for a second taking the train to NYC. I'll fly out of PWM or, if I want flexibility, drive there. There is a non-stop bus that I'd prefer, too.

It helps that due to a mix of incompetence and lack of support from the governor‘s office that there is no direct train link through Boston that a train from Maine might use to get to NYC.

Georgetown to Union station is about four miles and the circulator bus will take you there for a buck. DCA is about six miles and accessible by Metro. Seems about the same.

The OP was also looking at round-trip times (NYC to DC is about 3hr each way), so double all of those ancillary numbers.

Taking into account the security checks and transport to and from the airport, the flight might take significantly longer than the the train, especially if you’re flying at a busy time. Plus planes are more likely to have delays.

I've been regularly 6-18 hours late on Amtrak, which is longer than the length of the flight alone. At least when planes are delayed you usually know ahead of time and can just not go to the airport.