They used to be, and you can still see it in the way a lot of cities roads and former industrial cores are laid out.
tear down the entirety of New York
That picture was from NYC during the 20s.
But surface level freight trains are not a great solution in cities, hence why they built the highline, which stayed in use until the 80s.
expect to get everything there at the same time?
Scheduled freight trains running on their own grade and just stopping to switch out some containers can potentially be more reliable than semis. I have to say potentially because holy shit american freight has been hollowed out by capitalism.
edit: I don't actually think it's feasible for every place that needs more freight than cargo bikes can handle would have a train depot, but every truck that swaps containers at depots inside the city reduces the number of miles they're driving in the city and the need for giant highways cutting the city in half.
They used to be, and you can still see it in the way a lot of cities roads and former industrial cores are laid out.
That picture was from NYC during the 20s.
But surface level freight trains are not a great solution in cities, hence why they built the highline, which stayed in use until the 80s.
Scheduled freight trains running on their own grade and just stopping to switch out some containers can potentially be more reliable than semis. I have to say potentially because holy shit american freight has been hollowed out by capitalism.
edit: I don't actually think it's feasible for every place that needs more freight than cargo bikes can handle would have a train depot, but every truck that swaps containers at depots inside the city reduces the number of miles they're driving in the city and the need for giant highways cutting the city in half.