For a trip of 200 miles or less it doesn't make much sense to fly it these days, (unless you have access to a corporate or private aircraft). That is of course depending on the terrain, it may make more sense to fly between Charlottetown and Halifax than to drive it. It is possible to cut the time down by checking in on the web and if you only have carry on bags. You only need to print off your boarding pass on your computer or have it e-mailed to your blackberry, go through security and get on board. A person who travels frequently can have this down to an art.
The chart below is extremely biased, even travelling on the TGV, though quite pleasant, (plus you could bring and consume your own beer) is, or was, quite a lot like catching a flight. You still have to get to the station in Montparnasse, either by cab, Metro, or drive, park and such, check in and find your train. The chart shows the train stations as the starting point. Maybe the chart should show the starting point as the airport and arrival in the city centre, then to the train station, then to destination.
Trying to extoll the virtues of rail travel in Europe or Japan while comparing it to North America and especially Canada, is a non starter. Rail travel in this country has been very heavily subsidized allowing for the building of the infrastructure. Air travel is completely unsubsidized and the entirety of the cost is borne by the the cunsumer. Rail beds here suffer terrible abuse by the climate and pushing a heavy train faster than 70mph invites disaster. To my knowledge the US doesn't subsidize rail travel, and Amtrak's safety record would either bankrupt or cause the shutdown of any airline.
Air and rail both have their pros and cons, virtues and drawbacks. The UN is by no stretch an unbiased entity without an agenda. I trust very little of what comes from it.
