AN IMPROVED TRUCK/RAIL OPERATION: EVALUATION OF SELECTED CORRIDOR - A SUMMARY OF THE FINAL REPORT

Presuming an improved truck/rail transportation service would offer significant opportunities for the future, this study had as its objective the consideration of potential impacts upon trucking companies, shippers, Teamsters and the highways. The analysis was directed to a single corridor - Los Angeles to Portland with Sacramento as an intermediate point. Drawing upon traffic statistics for conventional rail service, all forms of trucking, existing piggyback and intra-coastal water movement, it was possible to identify nearly 500 forty foot container equivalents (FCE) of available merchandise type freight moving between the study cities on a typical day in 1971. Of the potentially divertible traffic, however, only 160 FCEs, or one 45 car train in both directions could be scheduled and meet the operational, economic and service constraints. What emerged from the first stage of the analysis was not free from ambiguities. While an improved intermodal service is conceivable, both economically and operationally, it is questionable whether the actual initiation of such a service, which would necessitate overcoming several barriers, would be worth the benefits it might generate.