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It's not about subsidies, that's just not true. You have to realize that the amount of cargo being hauled by trains is somewhere in low units of percent, say 3% of the total in a land-locked country. The capacity is not there, the costs/efficiency are not there. I would love to see all cargo on the rails, but it has so far not proven economically viable. All around the world.



Did you just make up the figure "3%"? It took me literally one google to get the true figures for USA: by ton-mile, 39.5% by rail vs. 28.6% by truck. [0] Of course, this somewhat undercuts thread parent's lament, but after driving a few miles on the interstates I drive most frequently, one might share that point of view. In many locations at many times, the majority of traffic is trucks, and they clearly are more dangerous to automobiles and more damaging to the road.

[0] https://www.fra.dot.gov/Page/P0362




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