Sounds about the same as flying. Took 12 hrs to get from Cleveland OH to Venice FL. Took a redeye to Chicago, had a layover then took a flight from there to Sarasota FL. Left around 2AM and got in around 2PM.

Airplanes travel faster, but the whole system moves slower. Can't say whether a train system would be better though...

Update: for shits and giggles, I looked at getting a ticket to Chicago on our rail system. The fastest route was 10HRs and it involves driving to Indianapolis and taking the shortest direct train from there. To put that in comparison, my drive to Chicago is ~5.5hrs. Greyhound Bus gets me there in 9 hrs.

So no, it's not even close. That's how bad the rail network is here. If you want to get somewhere, you need almost 3x the time to drive, you'd still need to drive for hours, and the cheapest ticket is 55 bucks one way.