Originally Posted by staehpj1

... when you start looking at mostly rural areas dotted with smaller cities and towns. Places like the Great Plains, West Texas, and so on come to mind there may be other alternative to the bigger cities, but there are huge areas between them. There really is a large portion of the US that just isn't served by Amtrak, or airlines, or really any other form of public transportation besides buses, but does have a bus stop in a town somewhere not far away.