What about the vast majority of the time when they are undercut by an
industry working within the law using well maintained lorries (as any
successful haulier needs to do to remain in business). If rail was so
good then the business would flow it's way

.... well safety never was a good selling point.

but in spite of massive
subsidies rail doen't even enter the picture,

.... no subsidy for railfreight.

possibly 1950's mentality,
lack of flexability and **** poor customer satisfaction can be the root
causes of their ineptitude.

.... maybe a complete highway network provided at a cost way beyond
anything HGV taxes run to has something to do with it.

Although railfreight has been growing for the last ten years mainly
due to the failure of the road system to deliver reliability. ASDA,
Morrisons, Tesco and Sainsburys have been turning to rail increasingly
for the long stuff.

In fact, the only major loss of custom has been the Post Office even
then not to road but air. Mind you we all know, judging by the balance
sheet, that Post Office management have been well away on the funny
stuff for some time now.