Not for trains - there's a shared expectation that pedestrians should not access the track.
Similarly, not for a freeway.
Where some feel the balance is wrong, is at local-level streets. Today the assumption in most places is that cars have total right of way, and pedestrians must keep clear. It doesn't have to be that way. In a residential area, it's quite feasible to say all road users have equal right to use the space. And in that circumstance, put the onus on the car user (wielding a heavy, dangerous weapon) to not hit other road users.
* Trains are _extremely_ predicable. Cars are the opposite. This is why trams in i busy inner city are more safe than cars. You know exactly where that tram is going and at what speed.
Yes, and on top of that if there were a train line on campus with any high speed train traffic it would be surrounded by tall fences and the pedestrians would be provided with off-level crossing. (One or more tunnels and/or bridges)
This is exactly the case a little ways away at Tufts University in the city of Medford. There's a busy train line that runs through the campus and it's fenced off. Students do sometimes find ways in there and use the right-of-way as a shortcut. Sometimes they get killed doing this--which is why the fence is there in the first place.
and if not why?