05-21-2020, 02:41 PM
(05-21-2020, 02:27 PM)neonjoe Wrote: The problem with freight rail now compared to the past is that a lot of businesses order everything Just In Time. Previously businesses would warehouse a lot of goods or materials and a large freight order makes sense. With JIT things are expected really quickly and the coordination for a large freight order would be harder. A train would normally need to have goods for many separate businesses. Not that it can't be done, the mindsets that JIT is better would have to change.
This kind of thing comes back to economics, because freight and manufacturing, much more than individual choices, is driven almost exclusively by economics.
When inefficient transportation by trucks is basically just as cheap to the user as rail freight because it's massively subsidized by the public, then we end up with this situation, because JIT does save money in warehousing and inventory.