The Boston Line

The Railroad, Boston and Albany, ran between it's namesake cities and had secondary lines off the mainline. The B&A was bought out by the New York Central but to keep Boston businessmen happy it kept the name B&A on its engines for a number of years before switching over to NYC power on the line. In the 1960s the New York Central merged with the Pennsylvania Railroad and formed Penn Central. PC was forced to include The Bankrupt New Haven Railroad in the merger by the Government. The Penn Central went bankrupt, for a myriad or reasons, and as a railroad saving move the government formed the Consolidated Rail Corporation. "Conrail" was made up of most of the existing railroads in the northeast since all were in financial trouble. Conrail dropped redundant lines, sold off limited service lines and trimmed the system. Conrail became one of the Super 7 railroads and a strong force in the industry. Conrail was put up for sale and was bought by both the CSX Rail corporation and Norfolk Southern Railroads. This is the way it stands today.

Passenger service was taken over by newly formed, Government Rail Service, Amtrak, as a move to take passenger causing deficits away from freight railroads.  Amtrak, although specified to make a profit, never has and never will. If memory serves me correctly, no passenger rail service in the world makes a profit.