The Great Reversal : Information and Transportation Infrastructure in the Intermodal Vision

The intermodal vision sees the value-added future of transport in terms of the ability to leverage the huge existing investment in modal transport infrastructure in the service of more efficient and effective logistics management in passenger, freight, and military domains. Intermodalism is not a substitute for modal transport and does not displace the longstanding focus on modal research, development, and infrastructure deployment. It is a complement to modal transport, providing vital leverage to obtain greater use from existing assets and provide useful transport services not previously available. Economic and security forces make greater intermodalism inevitable; the question facing transportation leaders is when and how intermodalism should be developed. Much of the needed research in the intermodal domain extends prior work in the modal domain, but it is especially important that research focus on the changes emerging and necessary in the broader technological and institutional areas of transport. In particular, research is required to apprehend and exploit the potential of sophisticated information infrastructure that is bringing about a "great reversal", in which the ancient dependence of communication and information on the transport infrastructure is being reversed, leading to a time in the near future when most transport will be dependent on the information infrastructure.