[www.railwayage.com]

Interesting article in Trainnews about the potential (or lack of it) for intermodal growth.

A little more information about traffic flows is needed, though. That short-distance (less than 1K, usually less than 500 miles) truck traffic isn't always running in useful corridors for train competition even if the railroads wanted to try (most don't seem to want to). For instance, a lot of LA and Oakland port truck traffic is actually drays - to Hobart, Inland Empire, Tracy/Lathrop, even Tejon Ranch. Those runs are too short to be rail-competitive due to loading/unloading times even if there was a direct rail alternative (there isn't, for most runs out of Oakland due to the hills, for Hobart runs (BNSF wanted a near-dock yard but got their head handed to them by local residents), and for Tejon Ranch. Even for Inland Empire, the destinations are too dispersed. So are there any other "short" intermodal runs that might make sense. It depends.

The article makes the case for a number of short corridors Back East. Maybe, if the terminal times could be managed and good train schedules could be maintained. There's enough road congestion there that it might make sense, and in principle even Chicago-East Coast is close to being a "short" corridor. Still, it's the terminal issue - getting the trailers and boxes on and off the trains - that's the key, and I don't see the railroads being interested (so far) in doing much about it.

In the west, opportunities are more limited. Though I wonder about one: LA area-Bay Area and northern SJ Valley. I-5 and 99 are nearly bumper-bumper trucks; there's almost no space for cars any more on 5. In ancient dayze, SP had "Overnight" freights (mostly on the Coast?). Could an overnight intermodal service focusing on TOFC be resurrected in that corridor? The old Coast route probably wouldn't work - too slow, and doesn't run near where the major orgins/destinations are any more. And I'm not sure trains could be run fast enough any more. Then there's terminals - could short trains with the old circus-style loading work quicker than the cranes and be less capital intensive? Something to think about, but probably not compatible with PSR...

Happy New Year!