At first, I expected my train travel to offer a clear benefit over other modes of transportation, such as lower costs or faster travel times.

Instead, the train trip, which made nine stops between Tampa and Miami, took longer than it would take me to drive or, obviously, fly between the same two points. In fact, my nearly six-hour train ride was 1.5 hours longer than an average trip that starts at the same time of day.

While the train reached a top speed of about 80 miles per hour, which would be a bit faster than driving on the highway, it also faced a fair amount of train traffic, and our average speed during the trip was closer to 45 miles per hour, which is slower than the speed limits on Florida highways, which generally have a minimum speed of 50 miles per hour.

Of course, I got some benefits from traveling by train instead of driving the route. I didn’t have to deal with traffic and I had the opportunity to sleep, eat and relax during the trip.

I was also surprised that the cost of the ticket wasn’t much cheaper than driving or flying. An ultra-cheap flight between Tampa and Miami on an airline like the now-defunct Spirit Airlines or its peer, Frontier Airlines, could have cost anywhere from $35 to $150 at the time of my trip, depending on when I booked.

Today, flights between the two cities can cost as little as $40, averaging $80 to $140 round-trip, depending on when you book.

Driving the trip would have cost an average of $34.16 at the time of my trip, as calculated using The Zebra’s fuel cost calculator and AAA’s state average fuel prices.

I paid $60 for a single economy class ticket (and $230 for a first class ticket), so driving and flying could have been faster and cheaper.