Why don’t we hear government and private businesses pressuring to revitalize the U.S. rail system to help reduce the oil crisis?

Question/Comment: Why don’t we hear the government and private businesses pressuring to revitalize the US rail system to help reduce the oil crisis? I thought the rails were the most fuel-efficient form of transportation.

Paul Solman: From a little reading in order to answer your question, I’ve found that it’s debatable that “rails [are] the most fuel-efficient form of transportation.” Seems that, in most instances, they’re no better than cars. That may be largely because they haven’t been forced to become more energy efficient in recent years, as cars have. But it’s apparently not obvious how you do that.