For anybody that has spent even a little bit of time on the freeways of America, night or day, we inevitably come across when so driving upon those freeways, the absolute multitude of semi-truck after semi-truck after semi-truck also driving upon those same freeways, with us. The go-to choice to move freight around in America, seems to be mainly by semi-truck, and of which, our interstate system appears to be quite capable of handling all of those semi-trucks throughout America, adeptly. The thing is, though, that at the inception of the 20th century, a significant percentage of the biggest share of market capitalism of publicly held stocks, were actually represented by railroad stocks, mainly because that was the primary means to move necessary goods all around America, and thereby was of immense benefit for the people and for businesses, by moving those essential goods from one place to another, for the greater efficiency and profit of the American people.
We find that, though, by the middle of the 20th century, important governmental decisions were made to invest billions upon billions into our interstate highway system, which thus made it practical to move more goods through trucking transportation, and by virtue of the fact, that rails were thus either ignored, dismissed, marginalized, underinvested, or to suffer from benign neglect, meant a greater and greater share of those goods so moving from coast-to-coast, and elsewhere, would be done through the trucking industry, instead. Yet, when it comes to energy efficiencies as well as to CO2 emissions, the freight industry is by far, the better choice. In most cases, freight trains run by electricity or via diesel power, making their usage of energy to not only be more resourceful than semi-trucks, but also signifies that the overall pollution by freight trains is far less. So too, freight trains are absolutely safer per mile than semi-trucks because freight trains run on their own rails, as compared to having to share the road with other vehicles and thus the inherent dangers, therewith.
The emphasis that the American governance asserts in regards to the ground transportation of goods of all types, does have long term consequences; and of which, when forms of viable and reliable transportation, are neglected or their priority is marginalized, then the result is going to reflect that what has so been prioritized will get the incumbent benefits, instead. The decision that America should take under serious advisement, is whether or not, freight trains, should become a higher priority for the moving of freight, throughout this nation, or whether such should continue to cede more and more market share to semi-trucks. After all, in order for rail service to become a renewed and re-invigorated force in the 21st century, this needs to be something that the government must be an active participant in, because it is governmental land, governmental right-of-way, and government eminent domain, that is going to determine whether rail is or is not properly prioritized. In fairness, it isn’t so much that freight trains don’t move any goods, but rather it is whether or not, going forward, this nation will emphasize that because freight trains are more energy efficient, less polluting, and safer, that this form of the transportation of goods will or will not be prioritized.