Logan,
Look at the history of railroading and its not hard to see they committed suicide. The roads because they "railroaded; customer be damned", while the unions laid upon the "featherbed" so hard they wore it out ! Both sides got extensive preferential treatment at the hands of government, yet still managed to snatch failure from the jaws of success ! So I don't feel too sorry for railroaders of yore. I suspect a good many were like my FIL, a mechanically inept "train inspector".
Trucks/trucking "won" mostly because they provided point to point delivery of high-value freight intact and on time. IOW, the customers' freight wasn't stolen enroute, broken by abuse during humping operations, lost on a siding for weeks, and not delivered to some nearly inaccessible siding with a demurrage bill if not unloaded in 24 hrs. Diesel was cheap and the roads improving. Trucking was a "lever" President DDE used to get his interstate highway system - a national defense system - approved.
OTOH, there are successful roads today. They're successful because they're efficient, customer-oriented and fast. >Mech
