Interesting chart from Paul Krugman today. It turns out that while Europe has a passenger rail network to put America to shame, we actually do better on freight rail shipments:

Indeed: while US passenger train service is basically nonexistent outside the NE corridor, America has had a revival in rail freight since the 1970s, while trains have just about disappeared from the freight scene in Europe.The paper from which I swiped the figure above concludes that a large part of the difference is due to “natural” factors: Europe has more coastline, so more stuff moves by water; American shipment distances are longer, which favors rail; and the US rail share is bulked up — literally — by a lot of long-range shipment of coal. (John McPhee had a great article about coal trains a few years ago.)

Still, there’s an important residual difference, probably due to the U.S. absence of border issues, more market incentives (yes, markets are sometimes great — but they should be seen as a tool, not an object of religious devotion), and maybe other factors.

Of course, America also ships an enormous amount of goods by truck–hence the American truckers who, like their European counterparts, felt the need to drive on the capital city in protest of high gas prices. And I’m sure there’s room here for someone to say something about the cost of diesel and its more common use in Europe, relative to America, but I’m not sure I know enough to provide the insight. But, interesting!