Intermodal freight transport refers to the transportation of freight in an intermodal container, using a number of different transportation methods. The North American freight transportation industry has been set through the establishment of the national railways and land bridges (Assadipour, Ke & Verma, 2015). This infrastructure is being further expanded by active promotion and help of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Globalisation is also helping this industry to gain significant momentum. Exploiting the comparative advantage, mostly in sectors of labour, information technology, telecommunication, FDI and other areas have helped North America to greatly improve their freight systems. Substantial capital investments have happened in this sector, which tremendously boosted the freight transportation system of the continent (Roso et al., 2015). Even though the capital investments have increased and infrastructure has been helped, the obvious problem remains: most of the rail operators have reached the limit in terms of network size, land limit has been reached in most of the North American area, most notably in the United States. To overcome this problem, a more integrated system and intermodal operations are being established across the rail networks, to ensure a smoother operational outcome. Bilateral, and even trilateral, arrangements are being adopted between rail companies and shipping organisations to improve the intermodal interface. Major gateways, intersections of different rail networks and hinterlands are given the most priorities.

The establishment of NAFTA brought about cross-border services, which massively helped the freight transport in North America (Roso et al., 2015). If this is to be sustained, then intermodal operations have to be given more priority and every possible tool has to be used to ensure a smooth continuality of the transport system.

References

Assadipour, G., Ke, G. Y., & Verma, M. (2015). Planning and managing intermodal transportation of hazardous materials with capacity selection and congestion. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 76, 45-57.

Roso, V., Russell, D., Ruamsook, K., & Stefansson, G. (2015). Seaport-inland port dyad dynamics: an investigation of service provisions and intermodal transportation linkages. World Review of Intermodal Transportation Research, 5(3), 263-280.