>>1806616Don't listen to the guys going on about energy costs. The actual reason is because among the total costs of running a train, actually moving the train is only a small part.
At every yard and every terminal, you require crew and machines for assembling, loading and unloading trains. You need crew for booking goods from customers. In short, you need a lot of people to get a train ready to actually go anywhere. All these costs are costs you can't really avoid.
Generally speaking, most contracts between railroad and customer are based on mileage, so you get more money out of a train covering 1000 miles than a train covering 10 miles, while you need the same crew to book, load and assemble both trains. By operating long and short distance out of the same yard, you can usually just use the yard (and often also locomotives) more efficiently, so both can turn a profit then, but I would say short distance alone, generally speaking, doesn't generate enough revenue to cover the costs of running a full-scale yard.
