Excellent Report
I love trains, but the new Greyhound operated by First Transit has become a very serious alternative to Amtrak on trips in the 2-6 hour range.
On my mileage run starting and ending last December at RDU, I took Amtrak from the DC area to North Carolina, and returned on Greyhound. The winner was Greyhound by a country mile. The Greyhound staff at the Raleigh bus station made me feel like they appreciated my business, and the two different drivers I had (we had a bus change and an hour layover in Richmond) really knew how to drive a bus. On Amtrak, the staff is largely either indifferent to you or hates you for being there.
I recently traveled by bus in the Baltic countries, and the trips were great; modern, comfortable buses--a company called Lux Express actually runs buses with a first-class section for 3 euro more than the rest of the bus.