People refuse to use Amtrak because they’ve been conditioned to learn that a ticket is often more expensive than a plane ticket to the same destination, even at the last minute.
Personally for Boston to NYC, I prefer the bus. It’s $15, faster than the train, more reliable and plenty comfortable for a few hours. Boston to DC I’d probably fly.
The comfort discrepancy between buses and trains isn't even close for me. Buses make me nauseous; reading a book on grayhound/bolt/etc is impossible for me and sleeping is only possible with drugs (e.g. dramamine.) Long bus trips make me feel ill, bored and tired all at the same time. I find the experience thoroughly unpleasant.
Trains by contrast are actually a pleasure to be on; I'd rather be on a train than my own couch at home. Compared to buses, Amtrak trains have less shaking, less unexpected accelerations, more space to walk around, better scenery, and fresher air. In my opinion the only form of transit better than train is a ferry.
As a long distance commuter, that was my experience as well.
For my commute, there is a bus, an regional rail and Amtrak. (And driving.)
The bus is potentially the fastest, about 2 hours door to door, but for about half the trip I'm unable to do anything but stare straight ahead and focus on keeping my stomach settled, and about 1 in 10 trips there is a traffic delay that makes it take 3+ hours.
The regional train varies between 2.5 and 3 hours, depending on how many stops that particular train makes, but it leaves me on the wrong side of town and the last fast train is at 7am.
Amtrak is best for me, more coincidentally, because it happens to stop near my workplace, and because it makes few stops it's as fast as the fastest regional trains, for an average door to door of 2.2 hours.
Both the regional and Amtrak trains tend to have delays about 1 in 50 rides or so, usually about 30-60 minutes.
(Driving is about 2.5 hours door to door, parking under my workplace, and costs as much as a bus or train just in tolls and parking.)
Can you not get a ticket for $5 anymore? In the post-FungWa vacuum it seemed like everybody and their brother was running a bus line that charged $5 for a 1-way to NYC.
I think you still can, but it’s kind of gimmicky. Like you need to be one of the first people to buy a ticket or something. I haven’t paid $5 since the FungWa era.
Personally for Boston to NYC, I prefer the bus. It’s $15, faster than the train, more reliable and plenty comfortable for a few hours. Boston to DC I’d probably fly.