>>1939893>freight railroads don't pay for a lot of their own externalities as wellThey pay for all the infrastructure they use, and pay taxes on that infrastructure. There's nothing railroads aren't costed for (examples would be noise/air pollution) that trucks aren't also exempt from, let alone that equals the trillion+ dollars the other modes got. Even the 1940s highway planning committees and organizations were suggesting something like nationalization of the railroads to attain an orderly, efficient, and equitable transportation system that would let the natural characteristics of each mode shape their relative share of traffic.
As early as 1939, presidential committees on transportation were issuing statements like
>to the extent that the inroads made upon railroad traffic and revenues by other modes of transportation are not due to natural advantages which the latter possess, but are attributable to artificial advantages accruing to their competition as a result of governmental favoritism in any respect, the railroads have a right to object. Such favoritism now exists in pronounced degree in the important matters of regulation, taxation and subsidies. But the government did nothing for decades, even though as Amtrak and Conrail showed, it was not in fact willing to accept the logical consequences of its transportation policy. Everyone wanted a viable railroad industry, but had few problems leaving it to literally rot for decades until large swathes of it weren't even capable of competently moving freight.
