jamesgangnc wrote:
It's ton cheaper by rail too.

Trouble is that the infrastructure to do either doesn't exist. When
gas was cheap shipping in the US all moved towards tractor trailers.
They are more convenient, they can go straight to many of the final
delivery points. Small rail and boat terminals dried up and closed
down. So now there are not any terminal points for a train or boat to
unload and load cargo except at huge ports. Gone are the days when
freight trains and boats dropped and picked up cargo at small cities
across the country.

Perhaps it will be the wave of the future, once more! My wife's dad has
lived in the S.F. bay area since he was old enough to remember, and for
ten years he was a merchant marine. After being there a year and seeing
all of the old docks along the Embarcadero, I asked him about them, and
he said those small docks were always full in his day, and that you had
to be careful on the bay to not get ran over by a barge!