This summer, an EasyJet trip from Liverpool to Basel, Switzerland was cheaper than a train ticket from Liverpool to York, a short trip East.
No wonder they see a “tax opportunity”...:^)
When I rode the bullet train in Japan it was 3 times the price of a Southwest Airline ticket for a comparable distance and ran at one third the speed. The bullet trains operate at a loss with huge government subsidies. Southwest Airlines runs at a profit with no subsidies.
Southwest can change routes. Try that with a train track.