UP's New motto -- "Why use ten trucks when fifty will do!" -- and

"Why drive a short distance from the pier to UP's Oakland Intermodal; when you could drive 65 miles to Manteca instead."

Seriously though, I must be missing something, for this to make any sense at all. Such as the possibility that the Manteca media was just hyping up Manteca, and forgot to tell us a few things about other places. One possibility - Smaller Container Ships or barges calling at Stockton instead of Oakland.

Another possibility that makes a lot of sense to me: Direct transload from ship to well-cars positioned on the pier, directly underneath the cranes. No sorting whatsoever would be done there, just ship to train transfer as quick as possible. Then as soon as all the well cars are loaded, they shuttle off for actual sorting and customs inspection at Manteca. The next string of well cars is then positioned and the process continues. . . . .

This would greatly reduce the horrible congestion that plagues the too small Port of Oakland, with no trucks needed at all! And would account for the vague references in the article about sorting and transloading at Manteca. It also would explain all of UP's noise a couple of years ago about their plans to re-open the Mococo line; which was their (seemingly absurd at the time) excuse for refusing to sell a defunct line to BART, when offered a cool hundred million for the R.O.W.

I wonder. . . .