My experience in the UK and Germany is show up, pay, go, and it being cheaper.
This is arguably illegal and only exists because the govt refuses to enforce the obvious interpretation of the agreement.
Meanwhile, the US DOT has historically always taken the approach of "the solution is more highways. What's the problem?", losing far more than $1B/year.
If you find their service to be good and cheap, I can only assume you've never ridden a train in Europe.
