Larger vessels, however, will increase the volume of containers entering the highways and railways in the regions they serve, often during peak hours of traffic congestion thus reducing the mobility of freight operations.
As international trade and growth surge in many regions of the world congestion on and between roads and ports is likely to become much worse in the next decade. Estimates are that the volume of container traffic moving through west coast ports will nearly double in a little over 10 years and most regions around ports simply don't have the transportation infrastructure to take care of this growth. Congestion affects employees and firms in missed or late appointments, time wasted, irritation, and inefficiency in moving goods, materials, and providing services. Many people in both private and public sector organizations see the need to build or improve on transportation infrastructure and many of them are working on extensive plans to build new roads, bridges, commuter rail systems, inter-city rail lines, airports, and marine ports. In order to build this needed transportation infrastructure, new financial arrangements will need to be found since the projects are usually too large to be done following conventional arrangements.
An intermodal system needs to address all the elements shown in the earlier slide regarding international logisitics. It also needs to address the driver in the system - the customer's needs. And most of all it is important to have an understanding of the emerging global trade and transportation patterns. A systems perspective is missing in many of those involved with making the system work - the stakeholders: the users, operators, infrastructure providers and regulators of the transportation system.
