The last-mile problem is also a significant issue for freight rail. US rail companies have been abandoning low-traffic and branch lines for years, because the revenue from the sparse traffic doesn't cover the infrastructure maintenance costs.
Being an efficient user of energy is not the same thing as being an efficient end-to-end mover of goods.
The best freight rail money is in "unit trains", long trains with a single type of cargo with a single destination -- the canonical example is coal trains from Wyoming heading for power stations in the midwest, which makes good use of continent-spanning "trunk" infrastructure and avoids the "first mile" collection expense and the "last mile" disbursement expense. Trains are very good at that sort of thing.
Being an efficient user of energy is not the same thing as being an efficient end-to-end mover of goods.
The best freight rail money is in "unit trains", long trains with a single type of cargo with a single destination -- the canonical example is coal trains from Wyoming heading for power stations in the midwest, which makes good use of continent-spanning "trunk" infrastructure and avoids the "first mile" collection expense and the "last mile" disbursement expense. Trains are very good at that sort of thing.