Trains cost less to run than planes do. They're also environmentally more friendly. I used trains throughout the 70s to travel long distance. There was no such thing as seating. Trains always had compartments. Some were two seaters, some were four seaters, and some were six seaters. Price was according to how many people there were in compartments.

I have no idea why they are so expensive in America. I think it has to do with profi.t Trains up until the governments sold off trains to the private companies in the rest of the world were run by governments.