>The problem with Amtrak is that the US railway network belongs to freight train operators
That doesn't generally apply to the Northeast Corridor though which I assume was being referenced by the mention of the MTA. That said, while it's certainly imperfect, Amtrak is actually pretty reasonable for the most part on that route. Certainly the epic delays that are fairly common on Amtrak long distance trains elsewhere are rare on that corridor outside of major infrastructure problems, such as power failures.
In Germany, most freight trains run at night because at daytime many tracks are at capacity with passenger trains.
[1] https://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/Amtrak-has-priority-o...
[2] https://specialty-freight.com/2021/06/us-requires-railroads-...