Amtrak is expensive! (on the one route I want to take)

This is weird.  Portland, Oregon to Tacoma, Washington is 144 miles apart, and costs $26 each way on Amtrak Cascades.  Going to Seattle is another 30 miles, and you're on the same train (TAC is just a stop in between PDX and SEA on Cascades) but it costs $2 less!

If you add the federal mileage rate to the gasoline per gallon price, and you drive a vehicle with modest (26 mpg on the highway), it'll cost you less to drive to Tacoma, too!

If you drive speed limit, you will get to Tacoma about 15~20 minutes faster than the train; if you drive slightly faster (as in 4 mph) you'll save more than a half hour.

So why take Amtrak from Portland to Tacoma?  I'm considering taking the train to Tacoma and back in one day to explore Tacoma with its museums.  But that means that I have just 6.5 hours between the earliest and latest trains.  One benefit is the ability to relax and stretch out while working on the computer; but the downside is the cost and time constraints.

It wasn't always this expensive, though.  A year ago it was $22 each way to Tacoma, making it slightly better to ride the train than to drive.

So of course, I was looking forward to high-speed rail, as the Northwest was one corridor that was given the designation and money, under the 2009 ARRA.  And I thought that, perhaps, Seattle - Tacoma - Portland could put together a combined 2024 Summer Olympics bid, with high speed rail.

Bleh: I read the White House's summary of the improvements between Seattle and Portland:

"Two additional daily round trips will be added between Seattle and Portland, for a total six; travel time will be reduced by at least 5 percent."

You gotta be kidding me.  $800 million and it'll just cut 5% off the time between Seattle and Portland?  That's just 10 minutes.  $800 million to save 10 minutes and add two more train rides?!?

I need a driverless Google Car, NOW!!!

Hell, the USDOT should just give Google that $800M to push out driverless car retrofit kits, and let us all enjoy a peaceful ride in our own vehicles!