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.
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.