[Willie Green]

Amtrak's quickest/cheapest direct route NYC to Chicago is the Lake Shoe Ltd at $86 for a one-way 19 hr trip. (reserved coach seat) It looks like this train operates once a day.
There are two other options involving transfers to a second train, one in Pittsburgh and one in DC. Those trips take about 23 hrs, including the layover to change trains. Fares for the other routes are also slightly higher ($100~120 or + $25~40 if upgrading to business class)

Euro Railways Paris to Madrid is faster (about 13½ hrs) but also more expensive (cheapest fare I spotted was $130 for a Tourist Passholder fare, but can quickly escalate to $300, $500 or even $850 for the more plush amenities. Click on the link if you want more information. I'm unfamiliar with scheduling European rail travel and am uncertain about how to interpret this info.

But you're right, it is a bit of a surprise!

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

1. Interesting data.
2. I imagine when you said “Lake Shoe Ltd.” you meant to say “Lake Shore Ltd.”?
3. So their (Europe’s) trains are faster, and more expensive?

Another example of “you get what you pay for”, then. I took a train from Paris to Madrid once - it was in 1978 - took all night and a good bit of the next day. You had to change trains at Hendaye/Irun because the Spanish rail gauge was different from the French - I think this date back to the Franco era - Franco figured this would keep the French from invading LOL.