Park Wait Times, Florida

The United States may be the land of the car, but it is also a fantastic country to explore by train. Private operators offer exclusive and luxurious packages on trains, but it is on board Amtrak trains that most tourists and travelers experience America by rail. The coast-to-coast journey from San Francisco to New York City by train is one of the world's great rail journeys, known for its breathtaking scenery and historical significance.


== Understand ==

Amtrak, the quasi-government-owned passenger rail company, is the only operator of regularly scheduled long distance passenger trains in the contiguous United States.
With the exception of the Amtrak-owned-and-maintained Northeast Corridor (between Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C.), as well as some services in Pennsylvania, California, and around Chicago, Amtrak services are substantially slower, less reliable, and less frequent than those of virtually every other developed nation in the world. With most trains having a speed limit of 79 mph (127 km/h), trains in the U.S. usually take longer than cars or planes, and are often more expensive than flying when travelling between major cities (though...