I think there's a greater affinity in England because they did pretty much invent them so there's that.
Here, railways may have been considered to be a little bit "foreign" in what was up to recently a largely agrarian society; they were promoted and controlled by Big House Anglo-Irish, they could speed troops to unruly areas, they were staffed by uniformed men with their own sub culture and slang, and surrounded by high walls and fences.
Stations were often scenes of emigration, people dislike being reminded about the bad old days.
As someone mentioned somewhere else, a working steam railway can be (and has been) funded and put into operation. That's the relatively easy part, the trick is to keep it going.
Contrast that with the greenway, once it's built, it's up to "someone else", council usually, to maintain. It's a crowd pleaser, the public get a leisure facility for free* just turn up with your bike or running gear.
* yes I know it's not really free. It comes out of taxation.
I think people would love a Severn Valley type operation here, I see a lot of "wouldn't it be lovely if we had X here, it would be great for tourists" commentary. Full of good intentions but good intentions of course won't butter any parsnips.