Futurology

Trains all the way, 100%

...

BUT

Thanks to "cost cutting" policies cargo trains in America are now miles long sometimes with only 1, MAYBE 2, workers. A conductor and an Engineer. But now they are cutting that to just the Conductor dong the Engineer position too. Meaning they have to exhaustively walk for miles if anything breaks down and fix it.

These mile(s) long trains also disrupt traffic and pedestrians in urban areas when these long trains need to check-in at a station (hence a stopped train). Pedestrians often try to cross in some areas where this is frequent as it blocks their path and have to risk injury/death to cross the still trains.

Children even have to go under them sometimes to get by (see Figure 4 of source). Many have been injured/killed by accidental incidents like a train jolting forward for a second.

Another issue is less diverse railway routes because these long trains cannot utilize the sidetracks to get off the main track allowing other trains to get by. This causes a lot of traffic in the train yards and decreases any gains in productivity from being longer.

The U.S. can and should do better. These railway plans were literally written by a Train Tycoon/CEO who mapped out railway routes in his living room after work. He thought he knew more than the average workers, but he later admitted out of guilt in a talk that he "has blood on his hands" because of these policies he orchestrated.

More info below for those interested with sources to back these claims up.

RAIL SAFETY: Freight Trains Are Getting Longer, and Additional Information Is Needed to Assess Their Impact

Fin.