Yeah that 5-hr drive (plus at least 30-50 minutes of breaks I hope) is just over 3 hours with the high-speed rail from Amsterdam to Paris, despite it having 4 stops along the way. I'd rather hop on a train and read a book or something.

Back when I was a student and lived near Rotterdam, it took exactly the same amount of time in minutes to travel to my parents in the north of the Netherlands (a 2hr drive) as it took to take the train to Paris (a 5hr drive). HSR is wild like that. Realistically, it only works well between 100 and ~400 miles. Barcelona-Malaga is 7 hours for 620 miles and I've done much longer HSR trips than that? But most people will still fly.

Hell, I seriously considered taking the train to Malaga from here. I can technically get to Barcelona in one day. Malaga would require an evening train to Paris and a full day of trains from Paris to Malaga (two trains of each 7 hrs), which is doable for your average climate fascist, but it doesn't hold a candle to a 3hr flight.

I just think that even in the US, there are a ton of trips in that 0-400 mi range that don't need to be flown. Your weekly urban system might've stretched all the way from Seattle to LA, but that's the exception and not the rule.