The NS (Nederlandse Spoorwegen or Dutch Railways) had a profit of 211 million euros in 2011, which is over all of their assets. So high speed and normal transport by rail. They did even better than last year.

The rail part is a bit different tough. The rail net in the Netherlands is not owned by the NS (it was when the NS was still state owned), instead it is owned by ProRail, which is owned by the state. So, ProRail, and by extension the state, is responsible for the rail network in the Netherlands. Some rail projects are seen as really bad expenses of the taxpayers money, like the Betuwelijn (budget 2,53 billion euro, cost 4,7 billion euro), but high speed lines are generally seen as a commodity. I'd rather get on a train and get where I want to be in 3 hours (say from Amsterdam to Paris) for a less than a plane ticket and not having to be on the airport 1 hour before the flight in order to go through all the checks. (Oh, and trains generally depart on time)

I read the article, but it is a bit messy. From what I know and heard, rails is more efficient than buses on longer distances. Also, currently running high speed trains in Europe and Japan have speed limits set at 320 km/h (or 198,8 mph) and can go faster than that. One of the advantages over air travel is that you can board without people sniffing all you luggage and beaming you with EM-waves, the eco-footprint is smaller and instead of having point-to-point connections, you can make multiple stops (so more of a line connection). Advantages all around and most certainly worth a second look. You can't solve all the current transportation problems just by building more roads and getting more planes in the air.