Yes, USA royally mixed up their incentives (unless their goal was "sell more diesel"...) by taxing the railroads too much and the semi-trucks too little (guess which industry represents a larger voting bloc)
Shout-out to India, they have grade-separated electrified freight corridors, 5 lanes wide in some places, running double stacked container trains at 100kmh, no noise no pollution, it's a sight to behold
The goal was to "sell more cars"... which.. yeah, had the desired effect.
We went from decently planned cities, good public transit, and a thriving rail industry in the 1940s to... what we have today. All because we prioritized cars and home ownership :(.
It's depressing watching old TV/cartoons from that era. Midsize to largish cities had electric trolleys and elevated trains for commuters. While there were cars, they weren't necessities for pretty much anyone. It's why today the older larger cities seem to suck for cars, because that's not how people got around when they were built.
Shout-out to India, they have grade-separated electrified freight corridors, 5 lanes wide in some places, running double stacked container trains at 100kmh, no noise no pollution, it's a sight to behold
https://youtu.be/l3Fx1A-dbYg