The biggest reason behind all of those is that passenger rail rides the same tracks as freight and freight always gets priority.
The biggest reason behind all of those is that passenger rail rides the same tracks as freight and freight always gets priority.
That's a later development. The downfall started when it was the private railroads who operated the long-distance trains and gave them all the priority they could. (I know a bit of history and context and a long time ago, I rode an Amtrak train myself :))