Their actions, particularly during the pandemic, have made it blatantly obvious they find the short and medium distance market a piddling nuisance.Although most of LNER's long distance market probably isn't "walk up" anyway.
But for as long as they continue to receive a public subsidy, and are given a state sanctioned monopoly on the majority of the ECML's capacity, they cannot be allowed to become an airline on rails. That would be the antithesis of the purpose public transport serves.