If containerships are the cheapest way to transport cargo, why aren’t we using canals instead of railways and highways to transport goods over land?

Question

If containerships are the cheapest way to transport cargo, why aren’t we using canals instead of railways and highways to transport goods over land?

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Answer 1

Another consideration is altitude. Canals need locks to raise ships up and down which are expensive and slow. There was once a plan for a super canal in Britain which traced a single contour altitude the complete length of the country, linking many major cities without any locks but as different companies had franchises to build canals on different parts of the country it never happened although many major individual canals that were built follow that golden contour for many miles, they were just never linked up.