From September 2000 issue of Marine Digest
North American Ports Compete in the 21st Century, Part I: Port Infrastructure
Closing the gap from terminal to rail: Conversations with intermodalists
By Peter Hurme
Intermodal experts Geraldine Knatz Ph.D and Paul Chilcote represent two distinctly different seaport regions on the U.S. West Coast, but both admit to the challenges regarding rail and highway connections to their respective port infrastructures of Long Beach and Tacoma.
One port shares, with Los Angeles, the role of West Coast cargo kingpin and all the stress that comes with being number one; the other is expanding to compete with traditional Northwest power, Seattle, and is also worried about the growing market share of a neighbor just over the border ‹ Vancouver, B.C.
It's already old news in the West Coast shipping industry that containerized growth, especially inbound, is going to grow exponentially. Finding the suitable land base to develop container terminals to handle bigger ships, faster ships and more containerized volume is part of the puzzle.
Provided the terminal challenge is met, where do the boxes go next and how quickly and cost-effectively will they move on their way to the end-user?
"Three years ago we were caught unaware of how important infrastructure, mainly rail, is," said Tacoma's Chilcote. "I don't think many ports are looking at this except the Alameda Corridor project in Southern California. Many ports think they can get on and off the mainline... maybe they can, but maybe they can't."
"The railroads on their mainlines have to have a place to put their trains when they get to their destinations. They don't want them sitting on their mainline. A lot of ports don't provide off-mainline storage," he said.
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