Well, living here in Iowa I tend to think in terms of freight and Union Pacific. No one travels by train around here. It would be impossible to do that competitively. I think it costs 1000 dollars to travel across country by train when it is about 250ish by plane. Who would want anything to do with a business case like that? But go to your nearest coal fired power plant and see if they haul that coal by truck? How much do you suppose that coal would cost if you have to pay a 300 truck drivers instead of one train engineer? It is also amazing to learn how much energy all of those trucks require to haul the same amount of coal that one train can haul. This article said 9 times as much but I think it's more.
I think it costs 1000 dollars to travel across country by train when it is about 250ish by plane. That is part of the problem. You are only comparing the costs that the consumer pays -- when the overall costs are compared, I'd bet that air travel is actually grossly inefficient. Remember, when you look at the total performance of the entire airline industry since it began, the industry is still operating in the red! After 75 years or so!
My point was that CONSUMER PRODUCTS move by truck. While many raw materials, especially things like coal, ore, steel, etc... are moved by train, most consumer products components are moved by truck as are the finished product.
I see gasoline tankers in trains all the time, and we know how it gets to the individual gas stations. 10,000 gallons at a time in a truck.
But again, this debate is about transporting the public. Not metric tons of raw material.