That's what I meant by "fairly long haul" (I thought the distance I was talking about was clear from the context).. It'd be hard for a 200 or even 300mph train to compete with a 550mph plane on a 2400 mile journey.

NYC to India makes no sense in this context since a train is never going to feasible for trans ocean transport. You may as well mention the 250,000 mile route to the moon.