In the November 2001 Trains, there is an article by Don Phillips (Fast Freight’s Future) that includes this statement:
“Some is [container train] traffic traveling between the Orient and Europe that North American railroads bridge from ocean to ocean.” No specifics were provided, but is there a rough estimate of how often this occurs? I was under the impression that most container traffic that arrives at Long Beach/Los Angeles, Oakland or Seattle/Tacoma would be destined for the US, and not travel further.
How easy would it be to use the US as a pass-through for customs purposes…
Almost none. There are occasional diversions in transit of good originally destined for the U.S. and rebilled to Europe, and some overflow, but no one does this as a regular practice as it is too expensive and not a time-savings vs. the Suez Canal.
That would make sense. The Suez Canal was dug, after all, to eliminate the need to travel all the way around Africa to get from the Indian, or Pacific Oceans to Europe…
Does anyone know of a good source of data on the internet showing container flows between countries with a breakdown by port on entry? Specifically I am interested in if the US West Coast is losing market share to the East Coast on traffic coming out of East Asia.
From the perspectives of employees of a railroad and an intermodal marketing company, we would agree this was not a major source of traffic for the US railroads in recent times. The original/most prominent COFC “land bridge” concept dates back over four decades. In recent times, rail carriers (especially BNSF) have handled this type of traffic for Maersk; however, a change in their corporate leadership has lead to all-water routes. It’s likely that all steamship companies frequently review shipping routes and their use of intermodal transportation to reduce transit time and costs.
On a brighter note, the CN is pushing it more with the Port of Prince Rupert to the Port of Halifax routing, as this is the shorter than the all-water routes between Asia and Europe. There also have been articles on Asian freight going through the Suez Canal to the East Coast ports of the US. Not to be overlooked is the expansion of the Panama Canal locks. It is likely that more Asian freight will enter Gulf ports via the Panama Canal.