If you weren't previously aware, the US
railroad network consists of a series of regional duopolies: (
PDF here). Two of the railroads shown on the 2021 map merged in 2023, and two more on the edge of merging.
Which begs the question: given the benefits of network effects (one combined network is more efficient than two networks of the same size) that in transportation infrastructure, why do we have more than one railroad company? Why don't we just have the Interstate Railway System the way we have the Interstate Highway System?
Partially, it's a legacy issue. Prior to World War 2, the Federal government simply didn't have the state capacity to achieve anything of that magnitude. (The U.S. had to develop it to facilitate war production, and then we used it to do things like win the space race). So railroads were developed by massive public corporations. Before highways, railroads were the only way to get anything anywhere overland, so a railroad could basically charge whatever they felt like. And as a local monopoly, they did. (Like charging $2000 for the equivalent of a plane ticket). So there is a lot of railroad hate in U.S. history.
The only competitor to a railroad is another railroad, and since railroads were highly profitable, it attracted competitors. But railroading is a brutal business, because it requires huge amounts of capital to build. And until it's done, built and operating, it returns very little money. So there was a lot of BitCoin level speculative building, and a whole lot of partially build railroads that went bust. That other railroads then bought up, plugged into their network, and brought to completion. Competition being bad for business, railroads owners of course conspired to restrict competition and split things up 'fairly' in a way beneficial to both (but detrimental to purchasers of railroad services).
Anyway, all the railways started out as profitable monopolies, then stabilized as profitable semi-monopolies. And the whole concept of splitting the operation (of vehicles) from the ownership and maintenance of the right of way didn't exist--the operations make money, the right-of-way doesn't. And it took the advent of the gas tax (1954?) to join those two together.
There are of course, a limited number of exceptions, most notably turnpikes and tollways. But the US had a system of turnpikes (still present in name all over Maryland) which collapsed upon the advent of the railways. (The railways themselves collapse upon the advent of the interstate).
So nowadays, there is no reason for us not to have an Interstate Rail Network. It would be remarkably simple per mile charge for any railroads using the track, and adding capacity where things are congested. But first we'd have to buy the railroad right of way from the railroad corporations. (Or just buy the corporations outright, and spin off the operating companies while keeping the track).
But would it work? Amtrak owns very little of the railways over which it travels--basically just the NEC (North East Corridor). And Amtrak is an absolute punching bag. Part of the reason the Interstate Highway System worked is a whole series of political dodges. The gas tax is federal, but the Federal government returns all the gas tax money collected to the states (albeit with some conditions attached). And the way the Feds return that gas is by providing an 80-90% match on building highways.
Quirks in American constitutional history: The Federal government is not allowed to build roads. They can fund them, plan them, etc.... but they can't own/operate them. Best guess is that it was a deliberate effort to protect the (private) turnpike trusts from (public) competition.
Other issue is that railroads aren't exactly profitable these days. Competition from the publicly subsidized interstate highway system (combined with over-regulation), drove most of them into bankruptcy in the 1970's. So in some cases, the railroads can't even pay to maintain their own right of way. But when a railroad closes, so do railroad dependent industries. And so we have a variety of programs to subsidize them. Railroads bonds are tax free, railroads are eligible for special zero-interest loans from the federal government, etc.
So why don't we have an Interstate Railway Network? It's because it's entirely a legacy issue--existing legacy providers protected by existing legislation, as once the Constitution protected the turnpike trusts.
We may yet see. Pennsylvania made a massive investment in the "
Main Line" of public works, building railroads and canals. So while it can't be done at a Federal level, there is no reason a state couldn't do it. But because of the scale (railroads work best at abut 500 mile distances), the network effects, and the sheer cost, it would take a big state to do it: NY, CA, TX, FL, OH.