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It doesn't make much sense to hook up Europe the same way because the population density in most parts of the map is no where close to China.

Compare it with India and you will see the same number of stations/trains/bus routes all subsidized and dirt cheap (compared to Europe), but far below in any other standard (naturally because they are poorer).

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First class in the best long-distance Indian trains is really quite comfortable. Beds are standard, whereas sleeper trains are disappearing in Europe, and you can use an app to order a meal for a certain time, which will be brought on board to you from a nearby restaurant at the appropriate station!

Beds are standard because Indian trains are excruciatingly slow. An "express" train is one that manages 36 km/h (!) excluding stops, while a "superfast" blazes along at 55 km/h. Not a single train in the country cracks 100 km/h as an average operating speed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Express_trains_in_India

The Chinese train in the article is thus literally 10x faster than an Indian express. There's finally some work happening on India's first bullet train, Mumbai to Ahmedabad, but even the most optimistic projections don't see it open before 2023.

Yeah, all of that is true. I was mostly replying to the "far below in any other standard" (emphasis mine) part of the parent comment.

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