Call me paranoid, but I wonder if this isn’t a way to make it harder for any new private rail company to compete with AMTRAK.
I can’t imagine why any private company would think it could compete with AMTRAK. The railroad industry carried its passenger operations for decades like an anchor around its neck until the Federal government stepped in back in the 1970s and created AMTRAK. Passenger rail is a terrible business model for the private sector.