Trains are only practical if everyone lives within 1/2 of the railroad line.
This is only true at the working end of the line, not the residential end.
Passenger trains are now like a public utility. People have to move between cities. The existing roads cannot handle the demand. To built the needed roads would cost much more than to build the dedicated passenger rail (and we should also build parallel freight rail). To build the needed roadways would also require many more people to be dispossessed from their homes through eminent domain.
We should require Congress to build adequate rail between major cities to move people and freight. This would reduce the wear on the existing roads, as well as petroleum derived energy costs.
{(+silliness)
Plus - it is easier to read on the train than while driving on the interstate!
(/silliness)}