There’s a book on the fall of the penn central. It was wall street. Pennsylvania paid dividends through the depression, then wall street/bankers made the merger and it went bankrupt.
Conrail was 5 bankrupt railroads melded by the govt about the same time it also took on passenger service, big time corporate socialism.
First thing the railroad companies did was lobby to cut passenger-amtrak funding for more airport funding, see also John McCain.