BTW, the seat/legroom on Southwest is FAR, FAR BETTER than American!
Maybe someday we'll take all the money we spend building bombs and build some cross country high speed rail.
That's because SW hasn't used zero room to entice you to pay for a seat upgrade to get back that 2 inches.
Saw a mock up for either a double deck or triple deck layout for the "economy" cabin - literally a lay out. As in the seats are severely inclined allowing them to kind of stack them in order to fit more people in the cabin.
I would say we are never going to see high speed rail service outside the NE corridor.
The only reason it's there is that the rail lines were in and only required upgrade. No new bridges, rights of way, tunnels etc.
That was expensive enough. I don't think anyone has the appetite to take on a trans-continental high speed run.
By the time they got done giving every semi-major city a station, the train would never get much faster than conventional service.
I think you can book a trip, but it will cost you more and take you longer than flying. Much more.
In the years I used local and express rail service on the east coast, I would say I have been stranded at least a dozen times.
Tree fell across the track. Suicide by locomotive were the two biggest issues.
Heat was another. Took the train from DC south, I think we never got about 10 MPH because the heat was causing problems with the tracks.
Not only that, but south of DC I was told the passenger service is secondary to freight. So the passenger train gets put on hold until the freight goes through.
