This is quite the "I have never lived anywhere else other than North America" take.

Rail and other public transport in pretty much everywhere in the world are designed to serve commute first, tourist stuff second or third.

Public transport isn't just having some trains, or having only trains between major cities. It is designing whole commute routes from various urban and suburban areas to workplace. There needs to be regional and suburban links that arrive to metro and tram stations. Metro and tram have to operate very frequently to handle commuters. The frequency of the trains should adapt to the commuters in the morning and evening. They need to be convenient, clean and safe too.

Cities around the world are also much better balanced than NA ones. The workplaces and living areas are almost always mixed rather than having a "downtown" area where every office worker travels to. My area has many buildings with a supermarket, apartments and small offices in the same building. There are two car factories in the city next to one of the biggest urban parks.

I'm a European who has emigrated to the US, and knows both sides pretty well.

I agree that European trains work very well for commuting to and from the center of big cities. That's where the jobs and tourist attractions are.

But to go between arbitrary places A and B is usually quite painful. Often the best way is to go to the center, and then from there to your destination.

When I moved to the US and got a car, it was an unreal feeling! I could quickly travel anywhere at anytime!! Practically it felt like my comfortable travel radius increased from 10km to 50km.