the countries with serious rail infrastructure mostly use electrification, hydrogen makes sense in places where it's really hard to electrify the route because of hard geography, or for shunting locomotives

electric trains are faster, ligther, safer and just much more efficient in general than hydrogen. and they're really not that much more expensive, india is electrifying the majority of its network, just like china did

also there's electrification on every and i mean every rail line in switzerland, so the remote or sensitive area argument is kinda weak

obviously not every route can be electrified, but most of them actually can, and i've already cited three major examples

edit: basically electrification is the only option for high speed rail, the best option for commuter, long-distance freight and intercity, while hydrogen is a good option for local/rural lines, shunting, branch line/shortline freight and some exceptions. most new lines are built already electrified, by the way

electrification is still much better, especially for long distance trains