I think you're arguing something else now, or I'm misunderstanding your argument. I'm not arguing that if the government had subsidized rail that it would have been better, that's no question it would have been better. It absolutely should have been prioritized at minimum same level as the interstate and air budgets.

What I am disagreeing with is that capitalism did a great job on it's own. It didn't. The companies were going bankrupt, and in rail's case they were torpedoing it on purpose so they could get out of the passenger rail business. It's not a "Oh woe is us if only capitalism had saved us"