@adiz @lain >This isn't a made-up number or hypothetical---looking at global fares in Japan
Ok, I took a quick look at the original shinkansen corridor or Tokyo-Osaka. The ~9hr low-speed rail ticket is marginally cheaper than the one-way ~2hr flight, which is barely over half the price of the ~3hr high-speed rail ticket.
I don't doubt that you can find counterexamples in europe and china which have unapologetic government intervention in stamping out air travel for potential rail routes.

I love trains but people live in absolute fantasy land when they think that maintaining regional rail at passenger speeds is more efficient than regional airlines, the fixed infra costs are just too high for the ridership to most of these places.