

It may be zip code boundaries, given how narrow the NYC strip is. Some of the excessive jankiness in what was Nevada would be because no one lives on a lot of the federally-owned land reserves out there, so they don’t get their own post office, and the catchment area of some zip codes gets huge with weird boundaries.
The big railroads are laser focused on short term profits these days, to the detriment of long-term investment and public safety. A fix would probably require updating or replacing the Head of Train transceiver on every locomotive, and that’s not good for quarterly dividends.