The key part that misses that pretty much no infrastructure like a motorway or muncipal airport generates a profit on ticketing alone. Ignoring the initial cons

The key part that misses that pretty much no infrastructure like a motorway or muncipal airport generates a profit on ticketing alone. Ignoring the initial construction cost, many HSR lines were profitable (prepandemic), i.e this private italian train operator: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuovo_Trasporto_Viaggiatori https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuovo_Trasporto_Viaggiatori