Kneiling's articles, by my reading, promoted a whole new kind of railroading, which after suitable massage resulted in Staggers and Amtrak. His viewpoint was very narrow, but a surprising amount of it actually got applied (Z trains, unit bulk trains, articulated intermodal cars) though using more traditional equipment than his "integral train" which made no sense at all in the real world. Remember, Kneiling wrote at a time when the RR industry really was dying due to regulation, and trucks were (and still are to a large extent) more effective for ordinary deliveries (they still are) than switching loose RR cars to shippers using lots of one. The best switch engine under those circumstances is a truck - local trains still running usually serve shippers/users with need for larger or heavier quantities on a regular basis than a truck can conveniently deliver.

Point made above about UPS et al not shedding their local delivery arms is partly true - they kept them as integrated parts of the system for scheduling and control but FedEx at least outsourced them for provision of equipment and staff. Postal Service has tried do do that too (outsourcing local delivery) but with less success than FedEx.

Once you get into the nonprofit (Amtrak/state-operated/commuters) sector, it becomes obvious that the local service (bus connections and transit transfers) is needed; otherwise, not enough people ride the trains to make them worth running.