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Comment by philwelch | Hacker News Reader

If only there was some mechanism for moving freight along a pre-defined route without the need for constant steering. Perhaps some sort of rails....

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And if only there was some mechanism to get freight from rail yards to its final destination, without the inflexibility of rails. Perhaps some sort of steerable vehicle ...

Context is key here. The comment you’re replying to was made in the specific context of the volume of long-haul truck traffic on I-40.

Not sure how the context of what I said changes this? Yes, trains already exist and have existed much longer, and yet have obviously lost out to the truck.

> Yes, trains already exist and have existed much longer, and yet have obviously lost out to the truck.

That may be in large part due to the substantial government subsidation of car/truck traffic through public roads, not the merits of one against the other.

Which was worth more, the government funding of the interstate project, or the almost unchecked power and monopoly of the robber barons of the Gilded Age?

It would be foolish for me to attempt to quantify what worth "more"; however, it is worth keeping in mind that the railroads we're very heavily subsidized in their time as well.

http://archive.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2011/06/05/colla...

https://mises.org/library/crony-capitalism-and-transcontinen...

Trains have in no way "lost out" to trucks. Rail transport is a huge and growing industry. But long haul trucks are sometimes preferred because they're faster. Our cargo transportation system needs both.

Trucks aren't just "sometimes preferred", they move far more tonnage than trains.

https://www.bts.gov/content/weight-shipments-transportation-...

Trains didn't "lose out" to the truck, they're both widely used, along with ships, pipelines, airplanes, bicycle messengers, and every other conceivable means of transporting goods.

Yes, because everyone in the commercial chain forgot about freight trains when they decided to start using trucks to move goods around.

I'm not saying I think trains will disappear, if anything, it seems they would likely benfit from increased capacity in the intermodal system, allowing them to move more of the type of freight they are well suited for.

The trucking industry is many many times larger than the rail freight industry in America.

It'd be nice if we had some more rail expansion. Rails are so efficient, and are just more impressive mechanically the entire system is like a giant computer with actual switches. There was an article posted here a while ago about how rare train accidents are and how incredibly fail safe those systems are.

The trucking industry and rail freight industry overlap extensively, in the form of intermodal freight

Right, I never said they didn't. But the trucking industry is still by far the main mode of moving freight within the US.

https://amp.businessinsider.com/the-staggering-statistics-be...

That's mostly because of:

1. (As others have mentioned) a lot of freight is intermodal so containers in particular shipped for long distances by train also travel by truck for the first and last X miles.

2. A lot of freight is relatively local in nature, so it makes more sense for it not to be intermodal.

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