Yup, that’s how hedge funds work. Everyone and everything will be left even worse off, which is hard to even imagine given the current state of affairs.

I think this is critical infrastructure that we should nationalize via eminent domain. Given that it’s wildly profitable, what arguments can fiscal conservatives make against it? We can then make the capital investments and worker conditions changes to bring about the direly needed safety improvements. Nationalizing the rail lines could bring the costs down and safety & reliability up further still.