[Jacque Strapp]

I would imagine that the reason it takes longer than you'd think for the trip is that the train can't accelerate and decelerate (sp?) instantly, it has to do it gradually or risk injuring or killing its passengers and crew, or shaking the train to pieces.

I presume that on a longer-distance trip, the advantage in travel time would be more pronounced, since the train would be spending more time at its top speed and less time accelerating/decelerating.

If only those German engineers had developed an inertial damping gizmo, like they have on Star Trek to prevent the crew from being pulped by warp speed acceleration...