That's not entirely true - rail freight in Europe is widely used, but usually uses different lines ( e.g. the old Paris-Lille line is used exclusively for freight, while the new high speed one is for passenger trains only), and yes, it has lower priority when its shared.

However, according to statistics i found, rail freight in the EU is at 17% for 2019[0], while in the US it's at 9%[1] for 2017.

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php...

https://www.bts.gov/topics/freight-transportation/freight-sh...