Forced to make a quick decision during a snowstorm in Chicago a couple of years ago, I abandoned my plans to travel by air and boarded an Amtrak train home to Los Angeles. I had set off for the airport harboring increasing feelings of skepticism and dread: interminable delays, a Civil War battlefield–style scene at the departure gate, being trapped on the tarmac for 12 hours with overflowing toilets, no food and my children 2,000 miles away.

When I arrived at the terminal, my worst fears were realized. Well, almost. It was...