Maybe building those high speed rails and pricing them smart enough that they are cheaper so people have reason to use them.
Pros:
No check in.
Railway stations can be build closer to city centers than airports (hard in USA where rail infra is horrible).
Nicer to travel. (Restaurant cars, night cars, can take car with you if needed, can take bike with you, more leg space, more flexible (some trains stop at every station and some only in major cities) can transport both cargo and passengers at once, onboard wifi makes the travel much nicer as you can watch movies or even work)
At 1-3 hour flight the train is not even slower than flying because you dont need to spend 60min at check in and 20/60 min at shuttlebus and waiting your luggage.
You dont need to penalize airtravel. Just offer alternative service that can compete with it.
In fact today i choosed a train for my travel. Flight would have been 1 hour and would have cost 170€ + taxi to and from the airport (add the check in, luggage claiming and transport from the airport to home it would have been closer to 3 hours). I took the train. It cost 37€ + 1,50€ subway ticket, and 300m walk from the station to hotel. I could use my phone the whole time. Nobody asked me to take my belt off, i had plenty of legspace the whole time and i got better meal than in any airplane.
Maybe building those high speed rails and pricing them smart enough that they are cheaper so people have reason to use them.
Pros: No check in. Railway stations can be build closer to city centers than airports (hard in USA where rail infra is horrible). Nicer to travel. (Restaurant cars, night cars, can take car with you if needed, can take bike with you, more leg space, more flexible (some trains stop at every station and some only in major cities) can transport both cargo and passengers at once, onboard wifi makes the travel much nicer as you can watch movies or even work)
At 1-3 hour flight the train is not even slower than flying because you dont need to spend 60min at check in and 20/60 min at shuttlebus and waiting your luggage.
You dont need to penalize airtravel. Just offer alternative service that can compete with it.
In fact today i choosed a train for my travel. Flight would have been 1 hour and would have cost 170€ + taxi to and from the airport (add the check in, luggage claiming and transport from the airport to home it would have been closer to 3 hours). I took the train. It cost 37€ + 1,50€ subway ticket, and 300m walk from the station to hotel. I could use my phone the whole time. Nobody asked me to take my belt off, i had plenty of legspace the whole time and i got better meal than in any airplane.
Cons: Somebody needs to build the railways.