> Wouldn't this underground network be more efficient than the above-ground railways for cargo? Cargo trains above ground need to stop at lights, need human drivers, etc etc.
Grade separation is a thing in much of the world.
And building a country-spanning network of heavy-duty underground tunnels isn't exactly cheap, even compared to a fully grade-separated train network.
On the other hand, having a national network of tunnels built and maintained is great for when an asteroid strikes off the coast of New York and you only have a few hours to get people to safety. Handily, they're also full of supplies and battery power.
In Cold War context, Switzerland used to mandate nuclear bunkers maintained and stocked for that purpose, they’re been decommissioning those for decades.
Starving in a tunnel is not helpful, and if you’re supposed to plan for an asteroid hitting New York directly affecting Switzerland, a network of cargo tunnels are more likely to collapse on you than save you.
Even tunnels which were built with that purpose in mind (like Lucerne’s Sonnenberg) have huge logistical problems caused by their scale.
It was a joke about disaster movies. One of them even had tunnels in its plot. There's a disaster movie set in Australia that goofs on the tendency for all asteroids to hit off the coast of New York by having the news come hours before the disaster reached them.
Grade separation is a thing in much of the world.
And building a country-spanning network of heavy-duty underground tunnels isn't exactly cheap, even compared to a fully grade-separated train network.