The Thruport concept and transmodal rail freight distribution in North America

The concept of flow has become particularly important in logistics and freight distribution. From a simple question of capacity, the issues of timing, frequency and punctuality are now of significant relevance in freight movements since they are part of supply chain management strategies. In particular, transport terminals and freight distribution centers have been the major elements permitting improvements in the efficiency and throughput of commodity chains from global production networks to local distribution. Intermodal transportation underlines a growing integration of freight transport systems brought by containerization. Receiving less attention, transshipments are not only an intermodal (flows between modes) issue, but also a transmodal (flows within the components of a mode) one. Rail transportation in North America is particularly illustrative of the challenges of transmodal operations. While containerized rail freight has experienced a substantial growth in recent years, this growth appears to be reaching serious bottlenecks, particularly at locations where transmodal operations have surged, such as Chicago. The paper investigates the concept of a “Thruport”, a facility designed to handle high volume transmodal rail shipments. The Thruport offers the potential of reconciling time and flows in rail freight distribution from which significant financial, time, energy and environmental benefits can be realized. It is argued that the Thruport represents a step in the evolution of intermodal transportation and containerization for inland transport systems.