That sure seems like it explains a lot about the state of US passenger rail.
I'm not sure if this would be enough to make coast to coast passenger trains more viable.
The best routes are the ones that replace short-haul flights that are currently really inconvenient in terms of driving and rail service. A route like New York to Toronto would make plenty of sense, where you have two major population centers that are very close together, but a huge headache to travel between by rail today (at 12+ hours total on Amtrak and Via Rail).
I could have flown it in less than 2 hours, security included. The flight would have cost less too!
The only way it would work is PreClearance on both sides (but then again, Canada has never been interested in staffing PreClearance in the US, even though they had reciprocal rights to do it). They only started their first one this year in rural NY.
The USA has solved two problems: cheap and easy travel across town (in your car) and cheap and easy travel across the country (in a plane).
Both COULD be done by rail, and some places do - sometimes on the same rail network.
And when the ONLY option for transcontinental travel was rail - the USA has some impressive shit.
Given the limitations and money available it’s surprising it’s as good as it is.
It's only cheap and easy if you discount omnipresent traffic jams, 50,000 deaths per year, ever-worsening climate change and the inability to walk/bike anywhere anymore.
Aside from that, it only costs the average American $1,000/mo to keep that cheap and easy transportation!
People buy and use cars because the benefits exceed their costs.
It isn't easy to value the benefits nor the externalities.
Sure, through a simple analysis of CO2 kg/km, trains are better for the climate for long distance travel, but they are vastly slower (average time from LA to DC is over 80 hours), which has knock-on effects, e.g., sleeping at home averages 0.25 - 0.32 kg/night, whereas staying at a hotel averages 10-40 kg/night, eating at home averages 2.3 kg/meal vs. 3-8 kg/meal, etc.