BY MARK B. SOLOMON, SENIOR EDITOR
RAIL/INTERMODAL
ON APRIL 27, 1984, A TRAIN OPERATED BY
the Southern Pacific Transportation Co. left Los
Angeles for South Kearny, N.J. This wasn’t just
another train, however. On board were containers
stacked two-high on specially designed “wellcars.”
The lower boxes rested in a depression built into
each car’s center area, allowing the train to clear
bridges and tunnels despite the higher cube.
The launch of the “Stacktrain,” developed by
steamship line American President Lines Ltd. and
railcar manufacturer Thrall Car Manufacturing
Co., became another “quantum leap” moment in
the history of freight transportation in America.
Railroads limited to hauling single trailers or con-
tainers on flatcars could now double their capacity
with little additional investment. Shippers, mean-
while, would enjoy a second surge of fleet produc-
tivity just two years after Congress permitted the
use of longer and heavier trucks on the country’s
interstates.
It’s been a prolonged adolescence, but 30 years
on, domestic intermodal—70 percent of which
today moves in double-stack configuration—
appears to have come of age. Its growth rate is currently about four times that of over-the-road truck.
Shippers, brokers, and motor carriers concerned
about road congestion, driver shortages, and volatile diesel prices continue to convert to intermodal;
in the country’s densely populated Eastern half,
they are doing so over shorter stage lengths once
reserved for trucks.
Intermodal has a ground-floor opportunity
to capture up to 3 million truckloads crossing
the U.S.-Mexican border each year (see sidebar).
Intermodal executives are pursuing small to mid-sized brokers, truckers, and intermodal marketing
transportationreport
Thirty years since double-stack trains
changed the game, intermodal folk are
making headway in converting truck users.
On the
right track
