this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2023
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From these comments it seemed like no one actually read what these are for? It actually makes a lot of sense to use existing, underutilized railway to deliver loads that would not require full train setups. This isn’t really a cars/trucks thing and I do blame Arstechnica for writing that shitty headline.
Yes, however, a lot of these rail lines have been needlessly abandoned and replaced with road shipping. Road shipping isn't really cheaper, they just get to put $10 of operational cost on the taxpayer for every $1 they spend. You're basically subsidizing artificially cheap shipping. Rail is the single most efficient means that we have of moving just about anything, but it's not as heavily taxpayer subsidized, and therefor not stonks. The correct answer would be to put those $10 of operational cost back on long and mid haul trucking companies and rebuild our freight rail networks, which, even without switching to electric trains, would significantly reduce emissions, make our roads safer, and drastically reduce long term maintenance costs on our highway infrastructure.
Could you explain this? Is it because taxes pay for roads?
In a word, yes. Subsides to the tune of 100s of billions of dollars a year across the USA.