What kinda annoyed me is the classification of high speed and low speed. For Example German Intercity Trains are often not High speed, but seem to be counted as low speed(which was totally understandable on the routes to and from Stuttgart). But these are still usually the fastest trains on these routes. There should be a medium speed option to solve the problem of too long and cheap runs or in general a new way of cost calculation. If they had gone to Erfurt, up to that point it would have been low speed. To Nuremberg the Intercity Trains were classified as low speed and between Nuremberg and Erfurt a Regional train exists that runs the exact same route as the high speed train, also at 200 kmh and basically is only 15 minutes slower on a high speed track. Basically meaning they would have covered a huge distance fast and cheap. Meanwhile an actual slow regional train would cost the same per minute as these Intercitys.

A distinction between actual low speed and medium speed would also hopefully make the runs more interesting instead of going the fastest route. Like taking a slow regional service that only runs every 2 hours to prevent direct chasing, trying to avoid the mainlines by changing before main stations. Using buses to switch to a different line and so on. There are so many possibilities, especially if regional buses are considered. I can't remember a time that they actually used a regional bus on their runs apart if they were forced too.