ABSTRACT
This chapter explores different geographical contexts and the changing geographies of governance throughout the intermodal terminal life cycle. It establishes a future research agenda, identifying where along the life cycle the gaps in research, theory, policy, planning and operations are clearest. The governance framework produced in the context of the governance literature and comparisons made to other sectors as well as to the global trend towards devolution of political governance. The chapter concludes by discussing the relevance to geographers beyond the subject of freight transport, as the issues raised are generalisable to other utility sectors such as passenger transport, water, energy and telecommunications, as well as to the wider debate about devolution, deregulation and privatisation. One reason that intermodal transport networks have been difficult for planners and policy-makers to govern is because of a lack of an understanding of the geographies of governance and how they change over time.
