Very few of the people pushing to get their hands on taxpayer money to build passenger rail projects would be caught dead on a train except for the inaugural ribbon cutting.
The closest they will get to a train after that will be getting a station or a rail line named after themselves.
If rail systems are worth building let private industry do it with private capital. But there is a reason all the pro-rail activists won’t invest a penny of their own money. They know there is no way a rail system will pay for itself, there must be an ongoing subsidy for each rider or the trains will travel empty most of the time.
You can’t sell a bond issue or attract private investors with a business plan like that.
The people pushing for new rail systems where I live are well heeled politicians, democrats who travel by BMW, Lexus and limo but know what is best for everyone else, big time political donors who will get fat contracts and well connected landowners who will sell land for the right of way.
Part of this scam is a payoff to government unions ( with our tax dollars ) who then kick back some campaign cash and free election day labor to the DUmmie politicians.