> ”… booked the train overnight and into game day across a 650-mile route … A 14½-hour weekend train ride”

Just by way of comparison, in China the 819-mile train route between Beijing and Shanghai takes 4.5 hours.

Imagine if we had passenger rail like Asia does, it would be amazing. But sadly it's all a matter of political will, the US simply does not want to create such a rail system where we can take bullet trains from NYC to LA.