Rail is faster and more comfortable than buses in my experience. The comfort is more than just less bumps in the road and less starting and stopping. Some trains even have bathrooms. The bathrooms on the (US) MARC commuter trains I've taken are considerably better than those on flights or Amtrak, for example. Buses usually have no such amenities, and when they do I'm told the bathrooms generally are disgusting.
In the US, for the most part, inter-city buses (in particular) are almost exclusively transportation for those who can't afford anything else. People lining up for a Megabus in NYC without any sort of covered waiting area aren't there because they prefer it to Amtrak or flying. And the Port Authority may not be the worst bus terminal on the planet but it's pretty awful.
People in the Northeast would also be well-served in these discussions by knowing that Amtrak falls into that same description in other areas of the country, especially the Southeast: where everyone smokes and drinks from brown bags, the shared rail means lots of stops, and stopping for hours because of a stalled car on the tracks is entirely too common.
The best part about the restroom on Greyhound is when it fills up and then every time the bus goes around a corner it sloshes over. Pretty soon there is raw sewage streaming down the aisle.
I can relate to this. One has to wonder how much of this is inherent to buses as a transportation mode vs the fact that it's normally the cheap option.
It's a mixture of both. I have taken a "luxury" bus to NYC with leather seats, WiFi, etc. It was fine although I still prefer Acela. (Prices were similar.)
