Concur. But there lies the problem.
The Class I railroads have no interest in running passenger service again. The only one that would consider it, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe, would insist that a third party own the equipment, hire the employees (except for the locomotive crew), run the trains and collect any governmental subsidies. BNSF would provide the locomotive crew and dispatch the train over its tracks -- for a price.
This is because, to BNSF management, all money is green. The other Class I's are so ideologically opposed to passenger rail in any form that they are willing to throw away the money that could be made from running it.
There are many shippers out there that would rephrase thus: "All Class I's are so ideologically opposed to rail transportation in any form that they are willing to throw away the money that could be made from running it."
I worked for Uncle Pete for a bit, so I'm not completely clueless in these matters.