Yep.
The responsibility for track improvements to support services would normally fall to New York State, not Amtrak, as the sponsor of the service.
For example, the states of Oregon and Washington have paid for numerous improvements for the Cascades, including new/reopened sidings, a third main track around Kelso and rebuilt a 10 mph freight branch into a 79 mph railroad to support more service when BNSF told them they could support no more than 5 trains each way a day on the saturated Point Defiance line which has single track chokepoints. The improvements funded by Washington included a new siding at Colebrook, BC, as I have mentioned before.
What is somewhat unclear in the article is that, for services within the US, paying for work needed
solely to support passenger services is
required by law, the Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970. Amtrak is responsible for any
avoidable costs supporting passenger service, including maintenance levels exceeding the railroad's own needs. That is the reason behind the loss of service to Phoenix. SP dropped all freight service on the Phoenix West line and required Amtrak to pay all maintenance costs if they wanted to continue to use it. BNSF was "nice" in maintaining the Raton line after discontinuing freight service on the line, but even they were done. They remained "nice" in that they struck an agreement with Amtrak and the states to continue maintenance on their own dime if the states and Amtrak paid for capital improvements (largely CWR and signal upgrades) to reduce maintenance costs. Which Anderson tried to reneg on, BTW. Granted, they were motivated to keep Amtrak off the Ellinor-Dalies portion of the Transcon.
CN is on solid ground here, although to a certain extent they are appear to be playing games. If the trackage was in the US, there is little doubt Amtrak and New York State would be pursuing Federal grants to support the clearly necessary improvements, like New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas and Amtrak did for the SW Chief.
As I have said, I was surprised the Adirondack was started back up, given the issue. Now, I think CN's play is clear. They came under pressure to allow the Adirondack to resume, and they did. But then they allowed "nature to take its course," as it were. They slapped slow orders on the line when temperatures exceed 30° C, per their apparent policy. I am pretty sure CN knew that would happen, but Amtrak apparently didn't. That allows them to rid themselves of the service while letting Amtrak and NYS take the blame.
CN's publicly announced position makes it crystal clear that New York State is going to have to pony up and find a way to spend money in Canada or lose the service. Or someone has to start serious negotiations with CP, who would have them over a barrel, too.
