Why is the cost of water transportation lower than that of land transportation?

The cost of railway construction and maintenance is huge. Thousands of tons of trains run at high speed on the rails, which is a huge loss to the rails and wheels. Rails and wheels should be replaced regularly, and the daily maintenance of railways and trains is even more terrible. Water transportation has no such cost. The cost of loading and unloading goods by land and water is similar. In the transportation process itself, water is cheaper than land by more than half. Haha, I don't know much about trains. Sounds like a joke. Thank you for reminding me that the heavy-duty train is 20,000 tons. It is estimated that if it were hundreds of thousands of tons, the railway track would have been crushed ~ it has been modified ~ the train is better than the speed. In fact, there are maintenance fees for water transportation, mainly for dredging mud, dredging sand and cleaning rivers. Natural rivers are sometimes difficult to carry water, and it is often necessary to build dams to raise the water level, which also needs maintenance. There are also shiplocks with large height differences. The Panama Canal has 26 shiplocks, and the maintenance of the shiplocks is also very expensive.

Another dividing line, water transport has always been a mysterious field that I don't know much about ~ ~ I saved some pictures of European inland ports to share with you:

1. The destination of shipping in the upper reaches of the Rhine River-Basel, Switzerland, you can clearly see the Rhine River on the left, the artificial river channel and wharf on the right, and the industrial zone next to the artificial river channel.

2. Strasbourg-a historical and industrial city in eastern France, the famous capital of Alsace. In the city on the left bank of the Rhine, you can clearly see the huge industrial zone, which is composed of canals and artificial waterways. Ships can easily enter the port and turn around. 3. Mainz, the first stop of the Rhine into Germany. Mainz is a large industrial town and a historic city of the Rhine River. Its name is named after the major rivers. Mainz is the confluence of the Main River and the Rhine River. You can reach Frankfurt and other cities by going upstream along the Main River.