I was recently on a train for the first time in months, and I just had to put on Kraftwerk's "Trans Europe Express" with a big goofy grin. — Even though I've been on trains many times throughout my life, it just never stops being special to me.
just go places anyhow if its not cost/time prohibitive
I've done it a few times, taking a new line I hadn't been on before, or going along with a friend on a trip for an event I didn't have tickets to, its always fun
I wish rail travel to and from where I am wasn't the absolute worst. I'm on a peninsula in the only city you can really call a city until you hit Montreal, which is about 12 hours by car although you'll spend 2 getting into the city because of infinite construction. The train, however, makes a stop in seemingly every single small town in all of New Brunswick and takes 30 damn hours. And it was $200, fuck via rail
I took a nice train trip last may and I think service has even expanded since then (the amount of trains/day was quite bad, but not nearly as slow as what you describe). I always feel like I'm just making an excuse to take the train rather than actually wanting to go to those places but maybe that's just because I haven't taken a full length (least one week) vacation in ages. Maybe I can save up for a cross country trip next year or over the winter
Honestly it's the only time I took a passenger train. In the states I've generally been touring eith a band and therefore driving and otherwise I've gotten around by hitchhiking, I'm right in that zone between too scary for someone sketchy to pick up and not too scary for someone cool to pick up. If you're a socially inclined person, it's pretty fun and if you know how to depart your town reliably you're looking okay. For me the first bus in service in town is a 4am one to the airport, it gets you there at 4:30 which is absolutely perfect because it gives you a half hour to walk to the exit ramp cause trucks leave at 5, get one of those and sometimes your still getting 12 hours out of town.