Agreed about the private sector, but as long as industry wages are arbitrarily set according to what some bureaucrat or union boss thinks RR jobs (and jobs in industries on which railroads are dependent, like equipment manufacturing) are worth as opposed to what the market thinks they are worth, then the private sector is hobbled.
I'd like to be proven wrong, though.
Please note also, that highways and airports are not run by the private sector.
If the stage coach industry was socialized we'd still be subsidizing it.