Why is rail pushed so hard in place of roads?

Roads - lots of things other than trains can use them. Vehicles of all sizes can be scaled up and down to meet demand. Way less money. Way easier to respond to unexpected line breakages.

Or even better, throw all that money that would be going to rail to eliminate short haul to electric airplane research and subsidising - far more useful to everyone in the EU rather than just those who happen to live near and want to travel between 2 major cities(which I presume is a requisite for the high speediness)