> Imagine a chain of autonomous trucks on a highway — isn't this basically a less energy efficient, less capacity version of a train ...
In principle, yes. And a train is basically a less energy efficient version of a barge or a ship. The trade-off lies obviously elsewhere (and is complex). Typical problems are loading and unloading goods (which is often quite slow, even when containers are used) and re-assembling trains en route when wagons have different destinations. B2B in bulk is were trains excell, such as deliviering coal from a mine to a power plant.
> ... that pushes a part of the costs onto public infrastructure
Only if trucks are not adequately charged via taxes and tolls. To get foreign trucks involved in financing the road network, many European countries have moved from pure tax-based systems (on petrol and the vehicle itself) to toll systems in recent years.
In principle, yes. And a train is basically a less energy efficient version of a barge or a ship. The trade-off lies obviously elsewhere (and is complex). Typical problems are loading and unloading goods (which is often quite slow, even when containers are used) and re-assembling trains en route when wagons have different destinations. B2B in bulk is were trains excell, such as deliviering coal from a mine to a power plant.
> ... that pushes a part of the costs onto public infrastructure
Only if trucks are not adequately charged via taxes and tolls. To get foreign trucks involved in financing the road network, many European countries have moved from pure tax-based systems (on petrol and the vehicle itself) to toll systems in recent years.