Railroads and streetcars were hugely profitable in the US, until the government subsidized cars by:
- giving everyone high-quality roads
- setting road tolls to zero or almost nothing
- making dense housing illegal to build with zoning laws
- requiring businesses to provide free parking
- requiring home builders to provide free parking
- all the crap US does internationally to secure oil supply lines
- not taxing pollution, noise, or other car externalities
- enacting crazy regulations on railroads; for example, American railroads can't buy European trains, they must build their own custom-designed trains at enormous expense
and on and on and on it goes, all at taxpayer (or business owner) expense. An American on a road trip thinks cars are cheap because everyone else is forced to absorb the cost.