Railways were a public service in Europe. Profit was not a goal. Trains were not that full often, so carrying a few youth did not make a difference.

Nowadays they all have some kind of business thinking (how successfully is a different story). Long distance trains in France and Germany at least have lots of business travellers. So they don't want backpackers travelling a lot and paying little.

Maybe we should lobby for subsidies in EU context. They even had some free tickets for 18 year olds some years ago, so they might understand the usefulness. Doesn't need to be free, but at least better prices and conditions than currently.