Another reason to not fly commercial. It’s a shame that the country has allowed rail travel to decay and diminish. Actually, imho, travel should be an integrated service, that is private companies should offer both modes in integrated packages. Possibly include bus service, with the same level of comfort as well. People need to move efficiently across varying distances. Airlines are best suited for medium to longer distances, as are trains. Trains and busses offer the convenience of “downtown” arrival and departure, as well as “neighborhood” stations…options that reduce time wasted on commuting to large airports and then more time wasted on long boarding procedures further exacerbated by doubling or tripling the time consumed by trying to connect to other flights. I won’t even begin to talk about the compromises inflicted on passengers by deregulation and chasing profitability. The fact is that aviation is expensive, and will continue to be so as fuel becomes more precious. The inexpensive and quality air service in the 1970’s and 1980’s was a one-off confluence of events. Current conditions prevent that level of service for those fees to occur now. However, quality of service should be held to those previous years standards, and then priced accordingly. Hence, my suggestion of integrating travel modes.