The United States is the only industrialized nation whose freight railroads are privately owned and operated. The land to build the railroads was acquired by exercise of eminent domain. A group of investors would seek and receive a charter from the state government to build a route from point A to point B. Much of the funding for these projects came from European state banks (Bank of England in particular). This investor driven approach to serving a legitimate public need was used because the government did not have and could not obtain the capital necessary to build the railroads. I imagine there are not many freepers who would support nationalization of the railroads.
Does a proposed project serve a legitimate public use? If so then why does it matter who owns it?
Why should We allow foreign entities to profit from the sweat of our citizens when there are many in this country who could finance the project?
Why is it a bad idea?
A lot of our military hardware is shipped to port via the railroad. Suppose a country, lets say China for example, owned the rail lines. Might there be a major problem if We went to war with said country?
Yes I know the Feds could step in during such an occurrence but, it wouldn’t be an easy transition considering the Chinese could throw a monkey wrench in the computers systems, etc.