> Another way to look at this is to see the pitiful state of the rail network on the continent: the most efficient way to move goods and people over land, severely underused.
The US has an inferior passenger rail network. It's freight rail network is fine.
In the US, freight within the country is 82% road, 12% rail, 5% water. In the EU it is 77% road, 17% rail, 6% water.
I wonder how these are actually counted? Suppose a manufacturer ships a ton of goods from their warehouse in Fresno to a retail chain in New York. Let's say that shipment goes by truck from Fresno to Los Angeles, where it then goes by train to Chicago, and there by water to Albany in New York, and finally from there to a New York warehouse owned the retail chain.
Does that count as 1 ton by road, rail, and water? Or is it going to have some kind of weighting by mileage?
If it is not weighted than road is going to be several times rail nearly everywhere, because there are a lot of things shipped locally which is almost always going to be cheaper and faster by truck than rail. On top of that most things that go by rail are also going to go part of the way by truck, since most things aren't both produced and consumed close to railroad stations and so it is mostly likely a truck that gets them to and/or from the train.
Our freight network is running on 1950s diesel electric locomotives so I wouldn't call it fine. Electric has shown it's better just had a huge upfront cost (even though regeneration can probably pay for cost long term even in some setups).
Also if it's fine why is most of the cargo moved by diesel semi?
Do you have evidence of this? While the US does use diesel electric locomotives. If you take a look at UNP for example, the majority of their locomotives were all built since the 90s and up. While I agree that emissions historically have not been at the forefront of business decisions, fuel usage certainly is and these companies have made improvements in fuel efficiency where it makes sense. Calling them 1950s locomotives is flat out wrong.
While I believe electricity is indeed the future for much of the world. I am not sure if its a slam dunk case with US rail lines today. Thinking at a high level for freight. Its possible that freight lines will go over leased tracks or tracks not otherwise not owned by the locomotive operator. So maybe it makes sense to only electrify specific lines, you not only introduce the upfront cost of electrifying which IIRC is a 2-3x (someone correct me if I am wrong) cost of just the existing tracks, you will also require different rail maintenance yards, require crews that know how to both operate and fix electric locomotives. Electricity is awesome but it won't be an easy sell to implement.
Locomotives will not be able to replace semi's. I am ignoring the fact they are run on diesel because I think this can and will change. The last mile will always be an issue. Additionally I believe most rail networks already run near capacity. Building more rail is a difficult task.
Electric does have done advantages it also has a fairly massive ongoing reoccurring cost, the electric transmission and delivery systems are expensive and requires expensive skilled labor to maintain.
Gasoline and Diesel are miracles, they carry vast sums of energy for little very weight.
Rail moves vast sums of cargo on trips over 600 miles, if the cargo is going less than 600 miles, odds are it's on a truck, but for expedited delivery operations, long haul single driver freight loads have mostly vanished, that business goes by train then truck for the last mile.
The US has an inferior passenger rail network. It's freight rail network is fine.
In the US, freight within the country is 82% road, 12% rail, 5% water. In the EU it is 77% road, 17% rail, 6% water.
I wonder how these are actually counted? Suppose a manufacturer ships a ton of goods from their warehouse in Fresno to a retail chain in New York. Let's say that shipment goes by truck from Fresno to Los Angeles, where it then goes by train to Chicago, and there by water to Albany in New York, and finally from there to a New York warehouse owned the retail chain.
Does that count as 1 ton by road, rail, and water? Or is it going to have some kind of weighting by mileage?
If it is not weighted than road is going to be several times rail nearly everywhere, because there are a lot of things shipped locally which is almost always going to be cheaper and faster by truck than rail. On top of that most things that go by rail are also going to go part of the way by truck, since most things aren't both produced and consumed close to railroad stations and so it is mostly likely a truck that gets them to and/or from the train.