I don't think the RRs are bluffing. I've been involved with enough large projects with many parts, which need approvals by many different agencies and involve development of new equipment and standards, to know that PTC is not a simple task. Just throwing money (which isn't free for private companies - the only public money involved is for Amtrak and some commuter lines) at it will not now, and could not at the beginning, erase all problems. That said, they probably should have thrown some political punches sooner than they did (especially when FCC shut down the spectrum and radio approval process for over a year).

If you want to see $87B (of what? not cash in a capital-intensive business...) vanish in a flash watch what happens if the RRs all suspend dividends on Jan 1 to go along with the partial shutdown (passengers and TIH) unless Congress acts. They could easily lose 1/2 of their market cap in a couple of weeks if they do that. But none of that would improve the implementation picture for PTC, which simply will continue to suck up time and money for a few more years. On the plus side, since private companies are doing it, there's a reasonable chance that it'll at least meet minimal operating and safety specs when it finally goes live, unlike FAA's Big Improvement Project for ATC and some of the "Smart Highway" schemes floating around DOT for the last decade or two.