It's always a big problem.
A different approach was taken in the United States when Amtrak—I know this is in a different sector and it's intercity transportation—was founded as the passenger railway. It was written into law that there had to be certain guarantees of service in the contracts with the railways so that the railways not only had to accept the Amtrak trains but had to provide that they could be scheduled to operate in a reasonably timely way.
In Canada, both VIA Rail, on the intercity level, and the commuter agencies, such as AMT in Montreal and Metrolinx and GO Transit in Toronto, are to some extent at the mercy of their host railways. They don't have any kind of legislated protection for quality of service. In Toronto, Metrolinx is increasingly dealing with that problem by building or acquiring its own tracks. VIA Rail has done the same in some important corridors, for example, between Montreal and Ottawa. A significant portion of the corridor is now owned by VIA, as is part of the corridor from Ottawa going west towards Toronto. But in general, there have to be ways found so that the freight railways and the passenger service can coexist and share those facilities.
The railway lines were originally built as public resources. Yes, they have passed into private ownership, but other countries have found ways of managing the coexistence of freight and passenger service. In some cases, it will require extra investment. As you know, VIA Rail has received extensive federal government money to build additional passing tracks. Some of those passing tracks are actually in urban areas. For example, in the city of Ottawa, there are some additional passing tracks that have been built by VIA Rail that could facilitate commuter service. In those cases, it is possible to find ways, again with some federal participation, to arrange a coexistence between these two needs for a rail network.