The "Sweet Spot" Range In Which People Should (Or Would) Travel By Train Rather Than By Car Or Plane

I wish trains were better in the United States.  The romance of it, and it serves as a happy medium between taking too long to drive and being too short to fly.  I am absolutely convinced that if the federal government properly invested in infrastructure, negotiated with (or bullied) freight operators that control most of the tracks in the country, and demonstrated that they will maintain all services for good ... well, that would probably help erase the stigma of Amtrak being a transportation system that derails all the time.

President Biden was famous for taking Amtrak from Washington, D. C. all the way to his Delaware home.  So it is now when train travel, and train enthusiasts, have as much leverage as they probably have had in decades to expand and upgrade high-speed rail (HSR) in the nation.  I doubt it will happen.  But it's just a teensy-tiny closer to reality since "Amtrak Joe" is President, and so I daydream about implementing HSR with a twinkling in my eye that's brighter than it would be otherwise.

Right now, right this very minute, I am obsessed over the "sweet spot."  That is the range in miles at which either it is most efficient or experts say more people would prefer to travel via HSR.  Like I said above, if it's short enough, people would just hop in their cars and go.  If it's too far, they'd rather fly because they'd get there faster.  Trains provide both the comfort of not needing to do anything and the convenience of not needing to wait at a terminal and pass through security.

But what is that "Goldilocks" range, the mileage at which taking trains is not too short and not too long but just right?  There is one advocacy group that doesn't believe there is a "sweet spot."  But I am looking at other website that at least presume there is, and I want to note their ranges below:

• The Federal Railroad Administration: 100-600 miles.
• This site: 250 miles.
• This European-based report by PricewaterhouseCoopers: 400-800 kilometers, which is 248.5-497 miles.
• The map on this site: About 100-500 miles.
• A researcher in this old article: 100-600 miles.
• This article from India: 300-600 kilometers, or 186-373 miles.
• A briefing highlighted in this report: 100-600 miles.
• This story: 200-500 miles.
• This interview on National Public Radio from way back: 150-600 miles.

So ... I guess the "sweet spot" is between 100 and 600 miles.  Good to know!