I gather you (Greg) are at least as old as I am (63) because you bandy the number $50 about like it is a lot of money. When we were young, it was a lot of money but today, it is a half a tank of gas for my pickup truck. Obviously not everyone can use $50 bills to light their cee-gars but it is a small portion of the overall trip.
I drove to Cut Bank, Montana from southern California and spent about $500 on gas and about the same on lodging (I eat here or there so I don't count food as a travel cost.) The whole train ticket is less than either.