I would love to see the nightmare this would be in modern times if it was sim'd out in like Cities Skylines or something like it. VT looks perfect for rail for a reason, It built this state when it was the best option. My father and grandparents rode the rails for the last few decades of their use up here.

Others have pointed out some issues so i wont do more than touch on them in passing. It would def. take Elon or Bezo's kind of FU money to revitalize light/passenger rail in any effective way. It would also take a huge increase in population OR migration to make it viable $-wise. The infrastructure to move all those people doesnt stop at the railstation, they need last mile transport, hospitality services for a few hours or longer sometimes, and run-times that work for both white and blue collar workers.

TBH if starting from scratch id go underground straight from Newport to a split just north of Ben. and Brat. Id split off from that to the county seats and build out the second string infrastructure from there. Yeah.. prob looking..30B? and a whole lot of court actions,lol.