Even ignoring the environmental impact, good train network is a benefit to a country. Too many people get stuck with the "train lines most be private and profitable" line of thinking.

Yep, it's easy to calculate the cost analysis of a train. But the numbers of its benefits aren't defined or understood since environmental impact of what they replace (car creation costs, car maintainence,road build and maintainence, fuel extraction and use). What's the economic (and environmental) cost of cars where these costs aren't priced in to the value proposition?

>priceless

not really

environmental impact has limited costs, and investing to reduce environmental damage makes sense when benefits are sufficiently large for given cost