[Stealthisbook]

More use? I'd challenge you to find that European freight is substantially diverted from rail to road. In most cases I'd suspect it's a matter of small or mixed loads over short distances, which in Europe might still be multinational. Frankly, for the kinds of loads that in the US would travel by rail freight, the alternative to rail wouldn't be air, but sea.

[capitainenemo]

There are many reasons cited in the links I dug up for others, but among the various issue such as interoperability rail systems that are designed for passengers that impacted track design and train length. This prioritisation happened long ago.