Good point, you get those days where all you can hear is people coughing and sneezing and you know you're going to be getting a cold a few days later. On a similar note the woman who sits at the desk opposite me got told to go home early yesterday because she sounded like death, she's come back...
I love your idealistic view of the train commute, for balance I think you need to add "getting wound up by stray elbows, loud headphones, phone conversations, snoring, unnecessary announcements and delays due to incompetence". Obviously that list is not exhaustive.
As you say though, a 2 hour...