Railroads are far more energy-efficient than their competition. Locomotives today get 80% more mileage from a gallon of diesel than they did in 1980. As a result, trains consume far less fuel than trucks do to move the same amount of freight.***Note:
That not only saves on costs, it reduces emissions of greenhouse gases. In fact, the Environmental Protection Agency calculates that for distances of more than 1,000 miles, using trains rather than trucks alone reduces fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by 65%.
Get the government out of the way and let the Free Market do its thing:
The chief reason that the railroads' long-term prospects look so good today is that they began upgrading their operations soon after the industry was largely deregulated in 1980. "The railroads finally had an incentive, as well as the cash flow, to reinvest," says Robert E. Gallamore, a former Union Pacific executive and former director of the Transportation Center at Northwestern University.
Note the words "finally had an incentive" follow, not precede, but follow "deregulated in 1980".
Which is illustrative of the general principle that government intervention reduces, or outright squelches, corporate, personal & individual incentive.
If government intervention reduces incentive to improve,
Then imagine what outright government control will probably do.
