The infrastructure is subsidized, local transit is subsidized, but long distance and high speed rail operations can be profitable, even including the capex of r

The infrastructure is subsidized, local transit is subsidized, but long distance and high speed rail operations can be profitable, even including the capex of rolling stock (In fact EU rules stipulate that they should be unsubsidized). Also, the EU mandates open track access, which means technically it's possible for private companies to compete (and they do, there are several private operators like Flixtrain, RegioJet, LeoExpress, even a high speed one in Italy, Italo). It's also possible to have rolling stock that is fairly usable all over Europe (RIC carriages, usually 200km/h). There is even a bit of a market for used vehicles. As for locomotives, traditionally they only work in one country, or perhaps two. Now there are more and more locomotives that work in multiple countries, e.g. TRAXX and Vectron. It's possible to rent carriages and trains. It's also possible to rent traction. In some sense it's getting close to possible to do a startup in European rail. I'm thinking about the problem a lot.