Interestingly, the total amount of rail is about the same for EU and US, however in the EU, 55% of it is electrified, and only 1% in the US.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_tran...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_tran...
The level of rail maintenance in America (barely any) is illegal in the rest of the western world. Tenders for maintenance specify certain speed and safety limits that basically require rebuilding every few decades.
Only on private rail could a hedge fund approach work, where the capital of the infrastructure is extracted by way of not maintaining it, but instead slowing trains down and increasing their length to compensate for bandwidth loss.
If the line is electrified then freight travelling on it will be travelling on electric trains.