> How many private rail freight companies are there in Europe? The railfreight firms I know are all semi or fully state backed.

Germany has enough of them to fill a couple pages: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_deutscher_Eisenbahngesel...

The vast majority is handled by state-owned DB Cargo though: https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/568662/umfrag...

> It doesn't say there are no new ideas in railways ever, but, who in SBB or DB is really going to go the extra mile to fight for some cool new idea?

And... what should these be, ETCS and automated couplers aside? The vast majority of truck innovation are related to electrification (which most major European rail corridors are already, and the last mile can be handled by the new dual power locomotives) and driver assistance (autonomous driving, dead spot detectors, emergency automated brakes, driver cab comfort).

> Truck firms are far smaller and there are way more of them, so people can conceivably get ahead by doing things differently

Yeah, they cheat on the safety rules, and enjoy that every business has a road connection while very few businesses have a rail connection so it's easier to do computer assisted magic in scheduling.

There are more rail companies in Europe, than in US. If you bothered looking at the UK, you'd notice that they alone has as many freight companies at US.

In US rail companies aren't exactly known for innovation either, because of extreme distances they haul and already efficient diesel-electric locomotives - there's no practical pressures to innovate at all.

There are multiple reasons why rail traffic in Europe and US is different, but none of it is because "socialism".