ABSTRACT
Like all the major maritime ranges around the world, the North American Eastern Seaboard has been transformed by the joint forces of globalization, regionalization and containerization. Investigations looking at economic and technological changes in the 1980s and early 1990s underlined that a process of deconcentration was taking place as ports were competing more aggressively over their hinterlands. The Eastern Seaboard is characterized by ranges each having their own divergence dynamics and connectivity level to their hinterlands. Each range represents an economic region with its specific hinterland and transport system. Ports having a substantial consumption hinterland were more advantaged since it became increasingly a matter of servicing more diffused consumption markets at opposed to more clustered manufacturing functions. For North American freight distribution, the hinterland system is articulated by a set of major long distance rail corridors dotted by inland freight distribution clusters and load centres.
