[Paladin2]

"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.

[Olog-hai]

Take a look at what Buffett’s railroads are doing. Granted, that’s in the sphere of crony capitalism, but Buffett isn’t asking for “feddy-bucks” for it. Even Union Pacific invests significant amounts of its own capital in the railroads its running.

And like I said, the government really needs to get out of the way. What with the sick state of affairs Detroit faces, the speed upgrade for Chicago-Michigan trains really is a vanity project.