I had that same thing a whole lot more recently than a decade ago. I used to commute from Stratford to Meriden by MNR and Hartford rail. Between the two trains and layover, it was 2 hours one way, whereas it's about 45 minutes by car.

Tried to catch a bus to my first day of work in Hartford to save money compared to the train. Maybe this is just an outlier, but I got there 3 hours later than I was supposed to.