If you’re a passenger rail fan, I’d highly recommend reading Randal O’Toole’s book “Romance of the Rails: Why The Passenger Trains We Love Are Not The Transportation We Need”[1]. The author is a passenger rail super-fan, but does an excellent job detailing the extremely high costs that make it difficult for passenger rail to compete with other transportation options, and explaining the history of how we got to the current state. Even if you’re a skeptic of his thesis, I think you’ll enjoy the details of the book.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Romance-Rails-Passenger-Trains-Transp...