They are both passenger rail. It’s relevant because I responded to your claim that amtrack is the most popular public transportation. It’s not, NYC subway is. How is that not relevant? That’s still small, you can’t compare a small country with fewer people and little rail infrastructure and draw relevant conclusions. So when you properly compare to countries that have populations and rail infrastructure that is comparable you can draw relevant conclusions. Which is why in my last response I chose to compare it to the EU. I never talked about lack of regulations and the Feds interest in it. That would be you projecting. And also the lack of regulation is because of the 4 main rail companies that lobby to keep it the way it is. Not because of the government’s interest in the lack of regulation. I never claimed that the NYC subway moves hazmat. They are passenger rail not freight. Idk what “dots” you want me to connect, but you definitely need some better reading comprehension. I honestly do not understand how you think that US rail is publicly funded. It is not. The railroad companies own the railroads and maintain them. There is 750 miles of rail that amtrack directly owns. They have cost-sharing agreements with states that they operate in, on lines less than 750 miles. Anything over 750 miles receives federal financial support. So the 750 miles that amtrack directly owns is publicly funded. And the rest that they use from the railroad companies gets some public funding. But that is still less than 22,000 miles compared to the 160,000 miles of US rail.