I'm feeling that even if that event were to take place, there's no way that even a socialized, publicly-owned railroad could entice new workers to take on work at these railroads. (I'd read that new hires rates are dropping drastically, just because working conditions and compensations are soooo bad.)

So even if the profits are shared, and the employees are state or federal workers, with compensation packages in line with other govt workers, the work is grueling enough that recruitments have been drastically reducing since before COVID.

This is all hearsay, of course, but I'd bet with cost of living going through the ceiling, if the railroads tried to adjust salaries accordingly, just to get new hires, it'd cause all kinds of havoc with the already-employed, as they've been gutted for years.

I don't see any good solution for RR mgmt or the govt from this situation, which means good news for American workers, even if there's some hardship in buying things.