Agreed. The problem is if those same right of ways have enough room for a set of dedicated passenger rails. OR if they can find a private company to purchase the land for passenger rail with no use of emminent doamin and no expenditure of public monies.
Frankly I don't think it can be done.
A far better tack to take would be to find the bottle necks preventing proper use of the resources we currently have and solving them.
OR if they can find a private company to purchase the land for passenger rail with no use of emminent doamin and no expenditure of public monies.
No, I would be in favor of Antitrust Legislation (or better yet... a Constitutional Amendment) that banned private rights-of-way.
It doesn't matter if we're talking airway, highway, waterway, roadway or railway... NO PRIVATE ENTITY should be granted monopolistic power to restrict our freedom to travel.
Even the freight tracks should be nationalized.
Let the private freight carriers actually compete against each other, just like the trucking companies have to do on our highways, the airlines have to do on our airways, and barge companies on our waterways.