ABSTRACT
Traditionally, intermodalism in North America referred to discretionary cargoes destined for areas east of the Rockies, but that arrived along the West Coast. The city has some of the largest intermodal terminals in the world, each handling many hundred thousand lifts per year. The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) heralded something of an intermodal approach to highway and transit funding, including collaborative planning requirements. In Europe, intermodal terminals are generally grounded facilities, meaning that containers are transferred between train and truck, and if a direct transhipment is not made, the containers are stacked on the ground. By contrast, the NS intermodal terminal at Rickenbacker near Columbus, Ohio is a wheeled facility covering 125 acres with a capacity of 400,000 containers annually and 40,580 feet of track. In order to understand the current system of intermodal transport and the role of policy and regulation in the US, a brief overview of legislation to this point is required.
