Are there any disadvantages of railways?

Answer 1

Certainly. The largest disadvantage of railroads is that they (1) require a massive amount of capital to construct and (2) can easily be made non-functional. Rails can be bombed, warped by heat, misaligned by miscreants or terrorists, or made unbalanced by natural disasters. Conversely, roads and cars require much less capital to construct since roads are much easier to manufacture and distribute than railroads. Additionally railways can only go to the destinations set by the rail-line, whereas air transport or cars can go anywhere the driver wishes.