As someone who travels frequently with both plane and trains, (Modern) trains are much more pleasant to ride than planes.

- More space (including the Chinese ones). While it might not be wider than a plane, it's order of magnitudes longer. So, each row has less seats, and rows are much farther from each other than on a plane.

- More room for bags and suitcases as well. There's usually no need to check your luggage, unless you have an excessive amount of them.

- No turbulence

- You can stand, walk, eat, drink, open the table, work with electronics, etc. at any time.

- No long-ass waiting time before and after. For a 8:00 train, all you need is to be able to walk onto it at 7:59. Whereas for a plane, they won't let you on unless you are present at the gate before 7:45 (the exact time depends on the airport). And not to mention the security checks.

- Quietness

- Air is better

This is how it is today, but imagine you need to do pre-boarding to trains by TSA one hour in advance, increased density for seating so that premium-economy can be sold at a higher margin, baggage limitations and payment per kilogram, restrictions to wear a belt at all times (no moving around allowed).

These restrictions were added to flying one by one, boiling the frog. It can and it may be implemented for trains also.

We don't see such things happening though and trains have been around for far longer than airplanes.

As someone who has taken the Shinkansen in Japan, the seats and legroom are vastly bigger and more comfortable than on airplanes. Moreover, the view is nice and normal air pressure is nice too.

In theory I agree, although in practice the experience is a lot different due to 1. less security theater (even in China, HSR security isn't as bad as American flights), 2. The vehicle itself is generally pleasant to ride on, as opposed to the turbulence, the takeoff/landing, and the air pressure that a passenger on a flight experiences, 3. It generally feels more scenic / touristy in the train because you can see the mountains and villages go by.

Chinese surveillance allows them to operate the equivalent of TSA PreCheck without having to do a background check on people.

With all the public and private surveillance, the US can do something similar.

On most air routes severe turbulence is rare. Take off and landing only take a few minutes.

That's a really good question, and I think is better than a plane in this ways:

- No need to wait in any way to out your bags or suitcases. Maybe a fast X-ray scanner where you put them in a side and pick them in the others in about 10 seconds.

- You know and can select where you want to sit precisely during the ticket purchase, unlike AmTrack.

- Due to the previous detail, you can show up to the train door even a minute before leaving without Any problem.

- All trains have a previously programmed leaving and arrival time, so there's no need to wait for traffic control in normal conditions.

With all of this, even with a train and a plane having the same travel duration, in a plane you will have to wait for a lot more of "bureaucracy" than in a train.

All of this is based in personal experiences using mid-distance trains in Spain, and the fast long-distance ones are even better and more comfortable.

I’ve ridden the Acela on the Northeast Corridor. It’s about as roomy as first class on a jet.

Perhaps not but it is very tough to do anything normal like even a laptop/reading unless there is no turbulence which is never guaranteed.