Second of two parts. Part I is available here.
In conference rooms in London and Bermuda, the ritual has become familiar.
Railroad executives arrive carrying spreadsheets, safety records, accident histories, ridership data, and engineering plans, laying them across polished tables before underwriters who will decide, piece by piece, how much risk they are willing to absorb. It is part negotiation, part performance, an annual exercise in persuasion where the nation’s commuter rail systems make the case for their own safety and stability, hoping to secure the protection that keeps their trains moving…