Quite a lot of work has gone into sc (more work then exists in the game, thanks Chris Roberts), the problem is, and I'm saying this as someone who has played it with friends, there isn't a lot of gameplay loop to play. There are gameplay loops, but imo they are kinda... meh?
Which makes me sad. I really want sc to be more than it is.
The problem is that Amtrak doesn't own most or even any of those rails, instead having to pay for the right to use them. The reason why this is a problem is that it's hard to upgrade rails to high speed when you don't own them. Amtrak trains also often have to stop and give passage to freight trains, which is unlike what you'd see in Japan where passenger trains are on their own, dedicated rails.
If you had read the first paragraph, or even the subheader, you would have seen that the article covers that and that the kids were working off the 2008 research.
Being a Google product, I don't expect it to have a long life span