US consumer rail way is a quasi public corporation (Amtrak) that has lost money for decades and is still funded to the tune of over $1 billion per year. You are confusing that with private US rails.
US private rails own the railways and, while in theory they are required to give way to passenger rail, are so long and take so much time to cross that in practice passenger rail is forced to adhere to the time-schedule of private rail.
This is arguably illegal and only exists because the govt refuses to enforce the obvious interpretation of the agreement.
Meanwhile, the US DOT has historically always taken the approach of "the solution is more highways. What's the problem?", losing far more than $1B/year.
