The reason France and Germany have high-speed trains while we don't is that they are Socialist countries. The TGV has never made money and never will.
Because the state owns both the railroads and the national airlines, airline ticket prices are higher than they should be - to help keep the trains competitive.
SNCF workers are among the most radical communists existing in any Western country today. Their union, the CGT, received money from the KGB right up until 1989. They believe that the trains actually belong to them (rather than the taxpayers), and have no qualms about going on random work stoppages, or using the trains to block stations, highway crossings or whatever.
They have almost single-handedly kept France from modernizing.
Be careful what you wish for...
How many years has our FAA made a profit?
You are certainly correct about the unions, but that is a separate issue.