Yes, and federal regulations induces an excessive cost burden on private companies doing that. No private railroad can just pick up a 125-mph lightweight tilting diesel-multiple-unit train from (let’s say) Siemens and run it between city pairs of its choice at the top speed of the vehicle—all because of federal regulation with respect to track classes, track signaling and even “crashworthiness” of the vehicle. Lots of mandates having to do with railroad crossings, automatic train stop systems, signals displayed in the engineer’s cab, dead man’s features, ad nauseam. Even the existence of Amtrak complicates matters.
Private railroads rebuild roadbed all the time, especially to handle increased freight business; if the feds would get out of the way, they could do it with passenger trains too.
Michigan bought NS track from Dearborn to KZoo to give to Amtrak.
“Private railroads rebuild roadbed all the time, especially to handle increased freight business; if the feds would get out of the way, they could do it with passenger trains too.”
Railroads rebuild roadbed all the time but not to the specs of the fast passenger era.
That era featured track that was tilted like a NASCAR oval to allow trains to fly around curves. Railroads could invest the money back then because they owned intercity travel.
Well that near monopoly vanished after WWII and there is no more economic rationale for maintaining such high speed track. Now only wastrel politicians will do something like that.