Oil was blocked, causing capital to enter the oil industry to release the block. That led to the oil industry having inordinate power. A strike in the rail industry would bring large amounts of capital into that industry to end the strike and prevent future strikes. As a result of breaking the rail strikes so well, (ironically, because the loss of rail service is so economicly painful) the government has created a problem of chronic underfunding for train transportation. We see this most clearly in the complete lack of bullet trains in the US even decades after their invention.