Maybe you should actually read the articles you link to. The entire thing was a barrage of environmental reasons why air travel should be curbed in favor of trains. We already know what they think of cars, and like hydroelectric dams, I figure it wouldn't take long for trains to get on their shitlist too. Maybe because some wild ice weasel can't cross the tracks or something.

And if you think their motivation is simply cleaning up the upper atmosphere, you haven't been paying attention.

The more various forms of transportation get subsidized, the worse the market imbalances will get. We're already in a position of having tens of thousands of miles of freeways and crippled national rail travel because the government subsidized roads and not railways for decades. Dumping billions into the airlines to "save" them, when I have seen no evidence that they are not responsible for their own financial hot water, is a bad idea.