Not boxcars, no. But up to the 50s we had electric rail in my area that handled panel-van kind of packages from station to station, via shipping cars hooked to the same train as passengers.
Then pneumatic tires and gasoline-powered buses got popular and they killed electric rail. We still haven’t the reach, speed, or versatility as we had then, since buses need to fight traffic against cars.
A ban on trucks?
Trucks will always be needed. Trains can’t go everywhere.
Also, the passenger-train utopia we both want would require lighter-duty high-speed rail, which freight trains wouldn’t be able to operate on
Not boxcars, no. But up to the 50s we had electric rail in my area that handled panel-van kind of packages from station to station, via shipping cars hooked to the same train as passengers.
Then pneumatic tires and gasoline-powered buses got popular and they killed electric rail. We still haven’t the reach, speed, or versatility as we had then, since buses need to fight traffic against cars.