If that happened, I wouldn't be able to get all these emails from the AAR bragging about how the railroads spend all their own money, don't use taxpayer money, etc. I'd suspect that the big freight railroads have the money to pay for plenty of upgrades if they wanted to. Why the Government should be giving money to this (or any other) big private business is beyond me. It is the railroad's job to make sure that the tracks, bridges, etc are safe and useable at any time. Sometimes these things happen...
I think it may be possible that NJ Transit might not be the perfect, infallible organization that most people assume it is.