That being said- our infrastructure is crumbling; roads are utterly disgraceful and seem like a third world country- the exception being toll roads. Even those seem to have patchwork all over. Just a quick drive from detroit towards Canada and down Niagra shows how badly the standards of asphalt type and use have dropped. Traffic management is somewhat better with the street systems but that too requires good roads to support.In the US, if I want to go from New York to Chicago, I would book a JetBlue flight.
Railway system is different between US and China, US developed their railway system since late 1800s to early 1900s (yes, you heard me right, 1800s) and today the American city pretty much using the same track they did since that time. Take NY subway for an example, there were tons of proposal regarding expansion of the Subway system since 1980s I think all but 1 did not come thru in reality (If my memory serve me right, it's the IRT line extension to LaGuadia), mostly due to cost and residence objection. New York Subway stays pretty much the same from form 1920s.
Any type of land form transport is discouraged in the US, not just railway. To do that, the government have to acquire many land just to build stuff over or under it. Which make it not at all fiscally feasible to do.
China on the other hand, develop the city with railway line as one of the recent development, the country itself is not as old (Started in 1949 and only start developing in 1980s) lands and facilities can design with ease to couple with the land base development, put into the fact that most land price in China are cheap, its a lot easier to develop a railway base transport structure.
Comparing the 2 is like comparing apple and oranges, a moot point.
As for flying- any other color than white is dangerous for your health. And if flying spirit airlines, just approaching the aircraft is dangerous.
There is a need for better service both in the air and on yhe ground, mega corporations are hurting the economy since that is reducing competition and the need for one upping service standards.