The original railways in the US were giving outrageous rights and huge stretches of land, which quickly led to monopolies and cartel formations. That resulted i

The original railways in the US were giving outrageous rights and huge stretches of land, which quickly led to monopolies and cartel formations. That resulted in the first anti-trust laws in the US. On top of that, the current dire state of railways in the US can be directly linked to the fact that they are privatized. Similarly, the early tracks in Europe were also often privately funded. Most were nationalized in the first half of the 20th century. Some countries tried privatizing tracks again (the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, ..) but quickly found out it didn't work.