Greetings,
I would agree with your comments, Though I have not really had problems with goods via trains, I have noticed that, Example if you have a ore train running to a steel mill, If you transport the goods to many towns from that steel mill you make profit. At the moment though for some reason if you transport via train to a town not far from your steel mill you make no profit, and suggest you transport those via truck, so on. Though if you are transporting the good over longer distances you can make great profit.
I currently normally have 1 steel mill sending good to 5 towns via trains and make up to 1 mil profit per year on some of the lines 500 k on others. But the close town I send them by horse and cart or trucks.
Regards.