"What money do we have to rebuild the railroad system"
enough to subsidize the auto and airline industry with billions of dollars on pointless flights when they could be contributing to the economy.
"noone is using public transportation"
mainly because america isn't investing in public transportation and the public transportation that exists is there just to squeeze us a D minus in infrastructure. Our infrastructure used to be great, and it took government lobbying combined with the Great Depression to kill it. My preference is for our infrastructure to be run by private companies that utilize the profit to appeal to the customer, making it better. A government-run company like Amtrak doesn't make sense compared to a government-run company like Nederlanse Spoorwegen because America is is massive compared to the Netherlands. However, a good private company can appeal to the customer, run an innovative system, and make some money.