The way to get the highest score in railroad tycoon (classic game) is to prioritize the mail and passenger trains. Government could pay CN to let VIA prioritize traffic.
I may be wrong but I recall learning somewhere that the recent rail project used the UK and Australia as a study for it. Neither of these countries are known for amazing high speed rail. Why didn't we look at Japan, France, Spain, or other countries that have world renowned high speed rail, high ridership rates, and good frequency?
The the time to build this rail was decades ago, lets use some of the most successful examples to study so we can catch up and build a modern system instead of building something that is already outdated.
I mean we have at least two study trials, Mincome in Manitoba in the 70s and the Ontario Basic Income Pilot Project in 2017 (though that one was cancelled after a few months due to a change in government).