by MattW
I know most intermodal trains are point to point, they run from a port, to an inland yard in a city where the trucks will pick up the containers and distribute them. Has any railroad ever given thought to running intermodal trains the way current mixed-freight traffic is handled? I'm going to use an Atlanta-Augusta example simply because I'm the most familiar with this line. For instance, instead of Q197 blasting through, it stops in Lithonia and drops off and picks up a few intermodal cars. Then when it reaches Social Circle, it does the same, and does this at the bigger cities on down the line like Greensboro, Thomson, and Augusta (I don't think Augusta has intermodal facilities so 197 is currently a through train as far as its cargo is concerned). The advantage I see is reducing truck travel, and increasing the time the load spends on the rails. But the reason for this topic, is I'm curious if it would even be cost effective. I know it would require more infrastructure than typical industry sidings, even just one large container-handling forklift would cost considerably more than the little forklifts used to say, unload a boxcar.