Planning Rail Service Connections

Ever increasing container volumes at ports along the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific Coasts are taxing the transportation infrastructure beyond its capacity in and around the ports. Ports are faced not only with increased container volumes, but also with the task of increasing the percentage of containers moved by rail to relieve regional highway congestion. This increased focus on rail has resulted in a compound growth of intermodal containers moving by rail and is outpacing the general increase in container volume moving through the ports. Recent port developments have generally addressed the needs for dock-to-rail transfers only to discover shortfalls in the next step of the transportation chain. The ability of Port Intermodal Yards (IYs) to meet their design throughput is dependent upon the ability of the railroads to serve these facilities and the overall capacity and velocity of the entire transportation network. In many cases, the development of the IYs has preceded improvements to other aspects of this transportation chain including the rail connections serving these facilities. Planning must go beyond the interface between the pier and rail and address a balanced approach to rail network development within the region and their connections with rail carriers. This paper will discuss the elements of the rail service that must be considered while planning on-dock or near-dock intermodal facilities; specifically the geometry and quantity of rail support facilities relative to the size of the intermodal facility. Actual case study data from three separate and unique ports within the USA will be presented.