One thing that's cool about intercity train travel is that, while high speed rail is an ~=obvious economic miracle, trains can be slow and still be commercially competitive.
I would much rather take an overnight sleeper train than either an early morning flight or a night flight with hotel room. The sleeper train will arrive right to the city center and save a lot of hassle and I always sleep like a rock on sleeper trains.
My impression is that Europeans are 'waking up' to this fundamental difference in value proposition vs aeroplanes and overnight trains are becoming more popular.
I think there’s a good value proposition for high speed rail when it comes to business travel, which is usually same day. But for non business travel, overnight does seem good. However, there is simply not a culture of overnight train in the US. In India, it is really common and many routes can be quite delightful.
Also, train companies were (and RENFE still is) neglecting night trains because their marketing department and direction were more interested in snazzy high-speed trains, so they didn't upgrade old train stock and stopped night services that were still filled to the brim with passengers.
I would much rather take an overnight sleeper train than either an early morning flight or a night flight with hotel room. The sleeper train will arrive right to the city center and save a lot of hassle and I always sleep like a rock on sleeper trains.
My impression is that Europeans are 'waking up' to this fundamental difference in value proposition vs aeroplanes and overnight trains are becoming more popular.