“archaic, 19th century technology like trains”
False. Trains are the best high tech way to move heavy freight, which is precisely why AMTRAK and highspeed nostalgia should get the h out of the way.
If we truly had competent central planning, the central planner would plan to get the heavy trucks off the highways where they are pounding the pavement and requiring frequent rebuilding.
The real problem with central planning is that it always becomes pressure group du jour planning. In contrast the invisible hand does the same thing that competent central planning would do while avoiding the overhead of the central planners and avoiding the costs of the pressure group du jour.
While trains are the best way to move freight they still won’t remove trucks from the highways. The problem is that trains lose the economic advantage over distances shorter than a couple of hundred miles.
Better to have a rail to road transfer point every 1000 miles with trucks able to radiate out 500 miles from there in all directions.