This trail, with all likelyhood will take the state owned tracks that Amtrak uses on it's way to Chicago. There's a small rail yard on the eastern side of Kalamazoo. It could also use a second track NS track that heads north to Kazoo from the CN line further down the line. There are several NS trains a day, or a few more, on the Amtrak line between BC and Kazoo. About a decade ago NS decided that it wasn't worth the cost of operating that track outside BC, since there's few customers outside the city of BC. They never threatened to abandon it since there's a grain elevator in Augusta, just west of BC. It wasn't worth it to run trains back to BC and then to Kalamazoo along the CN line, but it also wasn't cost effective to keep it at the 79MPH standard that Amtrak demands.
They wanted Amtrak to pay more. Instead of trying to get more money of out Amtrak, the state stepped in and purchased the rail and help maintain it so both Amtrak and NS can use it at speed. The nearly 50 mile tracks between Jackson and Lansing is currently owned by Adrian and Blissfied railroad, a Michigan short line railroad, also formerly owned by NS. Both the lines I mentioned were old Michigan Central rail, was was it's own rail, then controlled by New York Central, then Penn Central, then Conrail and finally NS.
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