Look, somebody is trying to take your “Whipping Boy” position!
Amateurs! I am the Rail Masochist on this forum!
For the record: All forms of privately-owned long-distance transport are subsidized by tax money in the form of infrastructure. From the days of the National Road and the Erie Canal to the modern air traffic control network and the Interstate Highway System, this is the model we have used in the United States. The government has no more business running a passenger rail service than it does running an airline — its proper role is to provide the transport infrastructure needed for passenger rail transport in the form of subsidies for the construction of electrified, dedicated-use regional high-speed passenger rail track and signals; later, these regional rail nets could be linked by federally-funded trunk line connectors. Private railroads would provide the actual passenger service using this infrastructure.