I spent the night on America’s weirdest sleeper train

Apparently trains are about 3x more fuel efficient than trucks. One train can essentially move the equivalent of 400-500 trucks. $20M-$25M in driver wages vs $250k-$300k for a train crew per year.

I would be interested to see how the costs stack up when you compare truck vs train maintenance, the support roles needed to maintain a rail network vs road network etc.

 

Intermodal operations has been taking a hit along with the spot freight market in recent years. We used to do a lot of intermodal transfers between the Midwest and the West Coast (usually along BNSF) and the East Coast and the Midwest (typically CSX or Norfolk Southern). We sold our intermodal operations to Hub Group in 2025 when the economy tanked. JB Hunt went all in on it and from my understanding they’re suffering from a $1 billion dollar loss! With intermodal there’s also the issue of property damage by the railroads to the trailers/containers and cargo theft,one of the main reasons why we got out of it!

 

No they’re not.

Amtrak turns down ‘Transcontinental Chief’ proposal: Report

 

Drive in's are still around in the states. Not many, but still have some.