Trains are the backbone and grandfather or distance transportation of goods and people. The cost profile is cheaper than air transport, but the security and comfort is drastically different. Watch Atlas Shrugged or read the book! Why? The future now involves space and should there be a civilization on another planet, they too would eventually need trains, but those trains might look like the Jetsons. As with most things from the industrial revolution, the weaker rail lines will lose due to insufficient returns on capital for needed long-term modernization. It may not need a new name, but it needs to recast the future role of its brand in horizontal transportation.