A business which has no customers has value to no one, especially the stockholders. Seems the railroads are operating in a way to "drive" customers off.
Also, many have said one of the large costs of running a railroad is the people they employ. But what about the ROW. The railroad has to maintain and pay taxes on it. That is a fixed cost if you run one or many trains over it.
Lastly, short vs longer trains. To me, it would take less time to build and tear down shorter trains in a yard than larger. Yards would turn over faster. And there are some yards or terminals which have difficulty with moving traffic. Houston is one. Seems there are always trains parked somewhere on the line along the Hardy Toll Road. It has two main tracks. Recently, UP added a siding to help make the line more fluid.
