MCC analysis for the Ariadne energy transition project shows 30 percent more rail journeys. The announced increase in price to 58 euros per month undoes half of this.
Meanwhile in North America, Canada's VIA is operating on a shoestring and being further threatened ... and in the last 50 years the US has pulled up most of the rails that were installed in the previous century. We're stuck with airplanes, hybrid metro-transit, and what's left of Greyhound. But, hey, we've got a world to police!
The argument that they make is that more ticket sales -> more funding -> better service -> more riders
But honestly they spent so much on enforcement, it eroded the funding argument, and having to pay for €100 tickets every month, paying increased fines, and pass through slow ticket gates erodes the better service argument.