As Swiss (just southern country of Germany fyi), the push for cheaper train is always interesting. However I expect the same level of punctuality and reliability when I would be ready to use train vs my car for work or business trips.
I did regularly go to Germany for work (Stuttgart, Karlsruhe and Frankfurt) and regularly had issues with either people causing trouble and police needed to board, suicide (sad but a reality) and most often technical problems. These often lead to missing important connecting trains.
So all in all for me the first step is not to reduce price but to ensure reliable infrastructure…
If the train costs more than flying and is a lot less reliable there's basically only the environmental argument left.
That said, I'm not sure what I want to choose. Trains /should/ be cheaper than planes, but they also shouldn't be a roulette whether I will arrive on time, or at all.
Unless things changed from when I used to live there, even with Swiss salary, any sort of demi-tarif even with Swiss salaries, is requirement for using the trains regularly.
So all in all for me the first step is not to reduce price but to ensure reliable infrastructure…