There are 5 different Greyhound buses next Monday from Chicago to Dayton (called "Dayton Trotwood"), ranging from $36 to $90, all taking about 7 hours. There are some passenger trains in the US—I've actually gone overnight from Rochester, NY, to Milwaukee, WI, via train when a flight was canceled—but bus travel is just how you get to medium-sized US cities, for better or for worse. 188 US cities are larger than Dayton, and it's only the 6th largest city in Ohio.

Of course, it's not as nice as having regular, smooth, fast trains. But the situation is not as dire as people make it out to be.