wrote in message
thlink.net...


Trouble is you have to allow around 3 hours to get through
the security and check in process on US flights these days
but here in Europe I can get from London to Paris in that
period and clear customs and immigration on the train.

True but they've been at it for longer in Europe. Americans are still
getting used to the idea of all the security, and importunely allot of the
personal that are manning the checkpoints aren't trained to the same
standard or level the their counterparts in Europe are.

To be fair the main difference is that the trains are specialist
International
trains making many fewer local stops. It would be very hard to clear
the Toronto-New York train as it makes more than a dozen stops along the
way.

The other factors are that the distances between population centers
are much lower in Europe, this means that a city centre to city centre
journey of 500 miles is a long trip and that high speed rail can compete
much more realistically with air travel.