How so? If we prioritized passengers, then rail freight will regularly take several extra hours to get places. Would that even be a real problem? Would anything else bad happen?
That would be a huge problem. You'd see freeways entirely congested with trucking instead. Freeways that are congested enough as it is. We need to build a grade separated passenger rail network.
This still doesnt make sence to me - the train shipping coal across the country weighs like an aircraft carrier and is about as fast.
This not a last-minute delivery, takes days to arrive, and presumably they know their material demans many days in advance. Whats a few extra hours going to do?