Comment by eigenspace

There is ample competition from cars and planes, europe has one of the most dense and intensive highway networks in the world, and the most dense and intensive short-haul flight network in the world.

Rather, the trains in western Europe are so desirable that the prices don't need to be heavily subsidized in order to be fully utilized.

In most of western Europe, the main barrier to increasing train usage is the physical number of tracks and trains in operation. If prices were further lowered, there'd be nowhere to even put all the extra customers the subsidies would bring in. Therefore, if the governemnt is going to put money into the trains, the first priority is infrastructure expansions, not price subsidies