But the ground staff can sink the initial impression and cause you to judge more unfairly. Now Amtrak is the only real passenger carrier for rail transport and one of very few land based ones. And as bad as we complain about Amtrak's service Greyhound is reported to be far worse. Now that being said Amtrak does compete with the airlines on markets in the NEC, other state corridors, and on the long distance network.
One of the competitive advantages for Amtrak is that the experience with "ground staff" is of much lesser importance than when flying, at least for shorter corridor trips. For example, when I ride the NEC up to New York or Washington or Boston, etc., I can roll out of my car, go down to the platform, and board the train without ever having to interact with "ground staff." Of course, there are the "cattle lines" in Boston, New York, Philly, and DC. When I travel from those stations, being a frequent traveler, I can use the lounges, so there's one place where "ground staff" service is important. Generally, they do pretty well, though some of the lounges have some quirky rules, like no eating outside food in the DC lounge. Baggage checking is another thing, though I may be one of the only people in the world who checks baggage on the NEC, and that's my ski stuff to/from Boston once a year, and I do that the day before the trip.
If you want to fly between NEC points, you have to go through the same ground ringamarole that people flying around the world have to do -- check in, security check, go to the gate line up to board, etc. Maybe you can use the airline app to check in early, and maybe you can avoid checking luggage, but you're stuck with dealing with ground staff. If I ride the Acela (or the Regional), I can use the app to buy my ticket 5 minutes before the train leaves. (Actually, I have bought them on the train before the conductor comes through, but that's living dangerously, especially in Baltimore with tunnels on each side of the station, where cell service is dropped.) Basically, I can get to the station 5-10 minutes before train time and make my train without having to interact with anybody. I'm pretty militant about arriving at the airport 2 hours early, because once I arrived an hour and a half early and missed my flight, the check-in lines were so long (and I was pre-checked in, too).
Long distance might be a bit different. On the one hand, there are unstaffed stations -- no need to worry about "ground staff", but you might wonder whether or not the train will ever arrive.
A lot of long distance trips involve transiting Chicago, so you're either going to be dealing with the cattle lines and inadequate waiting rooms or the service in the lounge, so the "ground staff" there is more important. Also, more likelihood of checking baggage for an LD trip, so there's that "ground staff" too. In general, I'm pretty satisfied with the "ground staff" service at Amtrak stations, but then, I'm pretty easy to please, and most of the time I don't have to deal with anybody.
