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epolanski

Move more of it to rail.

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As much of it as possible is done by rail, it’s the last mile problem.

Unless it’s last minute which a surprising amount of it is, but consumers love overnight access to stuff

Let those consumers pay for it then!

Yes trucks are only there for the last mile, they do tiny journeys, they certainly don't make up a significant portion of interstate highway traffic and drive for hours at a time

What rail? The railroads are at capacity

They are? Is there a chart or a map or a study or something that supports this?

Try to book something to shop by freight; expect a long wait

Take a trip on Amtrak and enjoy sitting still for 2 hours as freight trains go past you due to congestion / priority

The East Palestine disaster put an end to some tricks the railroads had been doing to squeeze out a little more capacity. The railroads are trying to expand switchyards and acquire old unused tracks like mad. My buddy who is in the union is pretty happy since this all means he’s moved up a few notches, gets day shifts now, and doesn’t need to travel as much.

I don't have any idea how to begin booking anything to ship by rail freight but there was no time in my life when I would have expected it to be a thing that could be scheduled with any agility. They closed the the Amtrak station and took the town off of the route decades ago, and I have been lead to understand that it has been a slow way to get from A to B in this country for my entire lifetime. I have not noticed a change in the number of freight trains that I hear in the past ~6 years, except during the beginning of covid when things got very quiet; but this is an anecdotal observation and does not represent the result of a study with any kind of formality. I have not witnessed an expansion in rail lines; the disused paths that I'm personally aware of remain disused, although I am aware of a new apartment complex that is presently being built atop of one of them near me. I do not know your buddy, or his union; I wish to presume that they're a very nice person, and that their union is very good for them and their fellow members, as I also wish to to presume that you are a fine person as as well, but this kind of presumptive character assessment is unrelated to the question. I am uninterested in conducting research to prove or disprove anybody else's stated assertion and I presently perceive no compulsion to become interested in doing that.

Kindest regards from Ohio.

I’m in the same state you are, so you can probably guess which railroad he works for. My town used to have its own tiny railroad complete with a local sales office that got busy signing up every business with a siding to try out shipping by rail. (It’s owned by a small multiple system operator now.)

I happen to have a few acquaintances who ship by rail and things are consistently at capacity. They’d rather move by rail than truck considering how much cheaper rail is, but timeliness is an issue. Most people simply aren’t aware that MOST freight is moved by ship and rail. Trucks are for the last few miles, in terms of total tonnage.

To change this would require buying trillions of right of way to build more tracks.

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