The Talgo train IS nice, but:

** It's an hour slower than driving, downtown to downtown;

** If you miss it by ten minutes, the next one isn't for four hours, or maybe tomorrow morning;

** And the dinnertime Portland-Seattle run at the end of the workday isn't the Talgo at all, it's the last stretch of the Coast Starlight, which originates in Los Angeles and runs chronically late.

So the train is rarely a useful option for me. With QX fares as they are neither is flying, most of the time. If I have to take three teammates to PDX for the day, I can either spend $1200 + car rental and save MAYBE 90 minutes, or $30 on gas. No contest; I've flown SEA-PDX once in the last year, and that was only because I was continuing on to SNA later that same day.