Living Car Free - crosscountry traveling: can I take my bike on a bus or train?

I have a friend that needs to take his bike from the midwest to Boston. Anyone have tips or personal experience traveling across country with a bike by bus, train or plane? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Here is Amtraks webpage on the subject:

http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Amtrak/am2Copy/Title_Image_Copy_Page&cid=1080080554487&c=am2Copy&ssid=43

I have a friend that needs to take his bike from the midwest to Boston. Anyone have tips or personal experience traveling across country with a bike by bus, train or plane? Any help is greatly appreciated.
There are two big problems with taking a bike as luggage. (1) Inconsistent, freakishly interpreted policies by the carriers about bikes and (2) How to transport the bike to the points of departure and arrival.

I think the simplest way would be to have the bike packed up at a local bike shop and shipped to the destination. One LBS in my town ships bikes within the lower 48 states for $60, according to their web page.

Thank you very much for the information Scotty and Platy.

I moved out of my college apartment in Montreal down to Philadelphia via greyhound. I (and my stuff) went in cars to get to and from the greyhound bus terminals. It's a very viable way to get from point A to point B.

I think I paid about $50 CAD for my ticket. I paid $5 for a box to put my bike in (bought at the bus station) and a $20 fee to be able to take my bike. I don't think I had to pay any additional fee for excessive luggage, although the bike (fee already paid) wasn't included in that consideration. I had two large suitcases and a backpack plus the bike. I had to transfer buses once, in Manhattan. If I remember right, that required over 200 yards of walking. A random panhandler-type guy offered to help me move my stuff to the loading area for the other bus and I wound up paying him $5 (USD now) for the help. Otherwise I'd have needed to move half my stuff forward a few feet, go back and get the other half of the stuff, etc.

What might help for moving a bike via greyhound is to take a copy of their bike-on-bus policy with you and buy a box ahead of time. Neither was necessary for me, though. If I had ridden my bike to the station without all my luggage, I would have been able to buy a box and take the bike with me. In order to fit the bike in the box I removed the handlebars and stem (without disconnecting the brakes/shifters) and the front wheel as well as one pedal.

Sounds almost like a folding bike would be dandy in this situation.