[VivaLFuego]

The issue of having effectively no regional governance (and therefore no regional taxation) is a real killer for intercity rail.

The only semi-plausible solution I can see: use the current "anti-pork" mindset to completely reform and simplify the distribution of federal transportation funding to simply be large block grants to states, who then could individually prioritize which transportation modes and which projects to invest the money in. This would, by default, weed out investment in money pit cross-country rail service, while providing a major injection of discretionary cash to those states for whom regional rail connections are a priority.

I suppose a distribution could be made via a simple formula based primarily on population with maybe some minor adjustments for existing strategic infrastructure to be maintained. The population distribution would be the basis for still having the federal government involved, since it would spend on transportation proportionately to the population rather than proportionately to how much people drive (i.e. distributing based on gas tax receipts), thus also removing any distortions favoring one mode over the other.