Every train from Alaska to Patagonia.

"High-speed" is generous — it touches 150 mph on short stretches of Rhode Island and averages far less — but on New York to Washington it still beats flying door to door, and it lands you in the middle of both cities. Business class is the base fare and is perfectly good; First adds a meal and little else. The honest comparison is not Acela versus flying, it is Acela versus the Northeast Regional, which is an hour slower and often half the price.

The first privately run intercity railway built in the US in a century, and it feels closer to a European operator than to Amtrak — clean stations, app ticketing, reliable timings. Miami to Orlando is competitive with driving once I-95 traffic is counted, and far less punishing. Fares are dynamic and can climb steeply close to departure, so it rewards booking ahead; the Orlando station is at the airport, not near the parks.

The one part of Canadian rail that works as everyday transport, and on Toronto–Montreal it is competitive with flying once you count the airport at both ends. Business class includes a meal and lounge access and is often only modestly more than economy when booked early. Punctuality is decent by North American standards but not European — the Corridor shares freight track outside the core.

New, air-conditioned and cheap, and it makes Mérida or Valladolid a realistic trip from the coast without a rental car. The full peninsula loop is open, but end-to-end journeys are long and some stations sit well outside the towns they name. Use the official timetable and check the departure again close to travel. For Chichén Itzá it is a real alternative to the tour bus.

Unglamorous and genuinely useful — these are how you reach a day trip without renting a car. Buy through each agency's own app; paper tickets bought on board carry a surcharge on several of them. Caltrain's 2024 electrification cut journey times and made it a real option between San Francisco and the peninsula. Weekend frequencies drop sharply, so check the last train back before committing to dinner.

All three are slower than driving, with border formalities a major part of the schedule. Southbound Cascades passengers now clear U.S. customs before boarding in Vancouver, so those trains no longer stop at the border for a second inspection; the other directions and routes still require border processing. Ride them for the scenery — the Adirondack follows Lake Champlain, while the Cascades hugs Puget Sound. Bring a passport and leave room for delays.

A tour, not a train service: it runs by day only, so every itinerary includes a hotel night that is part of the package price, and it does not take you anywhere you could not otherwise reach. GoldLeaf's full-dome upper deck is the reason to go and roughly doubles the cost over SilverLeaf. If the Rockies by rail is the trip, it delivers; if you simply want to get to Banff, VIA Rail and a bus cost a fraction.

Two nights across the Rockies and the Sierra on the Zephyr is one of the great train rides on earth, and the Sightseer Lounge is where you should spend the daylight. Temper expectations elsewhere: these trains run on freight-owned track, so delays of several hours are normal and are nobody's fault you can appeal to. A roomette includes meals and is worth the premium on any two-night run; coach for that long is an endurance test.

Summer-season sightseeing done properly — the GoldStar dome cars have an open-air platform, which is the single best feature of any train in the country. The Coastal Classic to Seward is the most scenery per hour; the full Denali Star is a long day and Denali itself is often in cloud. Service is drastically reduced in winter, and the flag-stop Hurricane Turn is a genuine curiosity: you can still wave it down from the trackside.

Excursions rather than transport, priced as attractions. Durango–Silverton is the pick of them: a coal-fired narrow-gauge climb along a ledge above the Animas River, and the open gondola cars are worth the soot. The Grand Canyon Railway mainly saves you a park car park. The Napa Wine Train is a restaurant that moves — judge it on the meal, because the scenery is a vineyard you could drive past.

Four nights in stainless-steel 1950s cars with a glass Park dome at the tail — a genuine classic, and the Rockies into Jasper are worth the whole fare. Be realistic about the delays: freight has priority for thousands of kilometres and arriving many hours late is routine, so never book a same-day onward flight. Sleeper Plus includes all meals in the dining car; economy for four nights is not a serious proposition.

One of the most spectacular railways in the Americas — 37 bridges and 86 tunnels through canyons deeper than the Grand Canyon, with a scheduled stop at Divisadero where the whole train gets out to look. Two products share the line: the tourist-grade Chepe Express and the cheaper, slower Chepe Regional that locals use. Break the trip at Creel or El Fuerte rather than riding it end to end in one day.

There is no road to Aguas Calientes, so this is a monopoly and priced like one — tourist fares are many times what residents pay, and the cheapest tiers sell out weeks ahead in high season. Most services start at Ollantaytambo rather than Cusco, so budget a shared van up the valley first. The Vistadome's roof windows are worth the small premium; Belmond's Andean Explorer to Titicaca is a separate, far more expensive proposition.

The destination is a viaduct at 4,200 m, and the altitude is the thing to plan around — acclimatise in Salta first, and expect the on-board oxygen to be used. Most of the itinerary is now run by coach with the train covering the final spectacular section, which disappoints people expecting a full day on rails. Go for La Polvorilla; it is genuinely astonishing.

A four-hour descent of the Serra do Mar through Atlantic rainforest, over viaducts and around cliff ledges — the best day trip out of Curitiba by a distance. Sit on the left going down for the drops. Cloud is common and can erase the view entirely, so treat a clear forecast as the trigger to book. Most people ride down and return by road, which is the right way round.