This is an example of bahnization - the tendency of every transportation method to evolve into a train.

I looked up bahnization hoping it was a real concept. Did you just coin it?

The concept is widespread, but to my knowledge there isn't a name for it. Bahnization is meant to be a play on carcinization, the tendency for things to evolve into crabs.

I heard they even want to electrify them and put them on rails, then they'd run electrical cables on top of the rails so they wound't need batteries. This would be hyper disruptive

Electrified freight rail has prevailed in Europe, but mostly because the European rail system is optimized for passenger travel which favors faster and shorter electric trains. America freight trains are several times longer than European freight trains, use double stacked containers (which don't fit under the wires Europe uses) and run slower. This makes them disruptive to passenger rail, but also more efficient. As a consequence of these factors, America moves a much greater percentage of its total freight tonnage by rail than Europe, which relies more on trucks.

So in short, electric freight trains are not 'disruptive'; they don't compete with diesel freight trains unless you have enough political pressure to prioritize passenger trains above diesel freight trains.

The US freight railways have priced wiring their rails. It is possible to do this, and double stacked containers are not a problem (except for a few bridges that are already borderline for being high enough). Problem is it is only worth it if you have every rail electrified, just a short section in some out of the way rarely used rail that isn't wired is enough that they have to have diesel locomotives everywhere just in case they want to send that train to the one unwired track. And so it doesn't pencil out until diesel gets substantially higher and remains there.

That is according to the railroad. There are others who question the math, which is a valid thing to do, though I don't know who is right. In any case it is possible to wire all US freight, but so far nobody has done it.

Electrified rails don't prevent diesel locomotives rolling down them, so if it was cost effective right now to electrify the most active lines, they'd do it.

So far, it is not.

You need to consider sea and river transport if you compare Europe to the USA for freight. A big chunk of the bulk goods market (coal, stone/ore, grain) is moved by water in Europe: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Modal-Split-of-Freight-T...

And India runs electric double-stack container trains, but of course it would be an enormous upgrade project to convert to this -- tunnels and bridges more than the wires: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNq8lP6cfL4

That’s not web3, someone has to maintain the rails, that’s centralized. Imagine crypto-trucks assembling into a train through smart contracts.

The song Convoy references this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd5ZLJWQmss - on the US interstates trucks will kind of "naturally" form convoys and the lead truck will swap off now and then; the rest will "draft" behind it.

It saves a small but noticeable amount of fuel.

This is called truck platooning:

https://www.nrel.gov/transportation/fleettest-platooning.htm...