Ho boy this got longer than I was expecting!
I'm honestly split on this. On the one hand, the system we have now isn't sustainable or really great for the country. Growth for growths sake only lasts so long and its rarely good for 99% of anything it touch's and having the big 4 control a massive part of the transport infrastructure is not great to say the least.
On the other hand, full government control is GREAT for passenger, but freight is neglected ( at least from what I've seen, pinch of salt and all that). I'm mostly going off BR and Conrail here but it seems as soon as something that big comes into power, things like branch lines, single car a week, and "when we need it" service's fly right out the window and into the path a a truck replacing said rail service, witch isn't great. It can also fall prey to something as stupid as the beaching report, because the controlling entity said "figure it out" and doesn't have the care/ time/ ability to actually look at how it was figured.
This isn't the end of the world in a place like the UK, where the loss of small (ish) fright service was taken over by trucks but the volume was manageable, for a time. In the US, with trucking already being a terrible job that you can barely survive on unless you own your own rig (witch could cost the same as a half decent house) and the sear volume of freight still hauled this way, and THOUSANDS of miles of branch lines that are just barely clinging on, it would be a disaster. We are already seeing some of this happen (why I said a big entity, not just the government) with the class 1's. PSR and the drive for unit trains is making the close down branch's, not because they lose money even, but because they don't make enough. and if they DO lose money, the rails are being ripped as we speak unless a little short line offers to buy it.
Not to mention we are only kidding ourselves if you think some federal rail wouldn't still have to make a profit. I believe as of a few years ago Amtrak has to be 100% self funding witch is why they are desperately trying to make the trans con trains less of a sink.
I think it would almost have to be some sort of hybrid. Maybe nationalize the big 4, leave the rest but put price regulations and incentivize branch line survives or something, I'm not sure. after the glorious workers revolution it wont matter anyways! :hehe:
This has been my TED type.
