Are you referring to passenger or freight?
Our current system of moving so much freight in individual trucks over roads also has problems and huge inefficiencies.
Passenger, of course. The subject of the thread is Amtrack.
That is because the major railroads have abandoned the short lines that do not have the volume. The BNSF, UP, CSXT, NS, KCS, CN & CPRS are not interested in serving the smaller customer. They would much rather run a train full of one commodity across their line such as coal from one place to another with no stops.
It is much less efficient to pull out that one railcar and deliver it to a single destination. Over the last 30 years I have seen several of my lumber yard customers rail siding abandoned because they did not do enough volume. This forced these companies to purchase in truckload quantities.
Also, the railroads have made it cost prohibitive to move a railcar from one railroad to another in many metro areas.
Again this makes it cheaper at times to buy truckload shipments.
Lastly, customers that buy in a truckload quantity as opposed to a railcar quantity of the same commodity are buying about 1/3 the volume. They may pay a little more but they turn their inventory faster. Plus in some markets trucks are actually cheaper delivered than railcars freights. For example, if a customer in Boise that is buying lumber from a mill in northern Idaho. It is cheaper to truck it. However, if you are trying to sell the same lumber to Houston, it will be cheaper to ship it on a railcar.
The Lumber Broker