Source: Oak Ridge National Laboratory. BTS. Containerization International.
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The North American Intermodal Rail System

The North American rail transport system shows a high level of geographical specialization with large rail carriers servicing large regional markets. Each carrier has its own facilities and thus its own markets along the segments it controls. The rail system is the outcome of substantial capital investments occurring over several decades with the accumulation of impressive infrastructure and equipment assets. However, such a characteristic created issues about continuity within the North American rail network, particularly in the United States. Mergers have improved this continuity but a limit has been reached in the network size of most rail operators. Attempts have been made to synchronize the interactions between rail operators for long distance trade with the setting of intermodal unit trains. Often bilateral, trilateral or even quadrilateral arrangements are made between rail carriers and shipping companies to improve the intermodal interface at the major gateways or at points of interlining between major networks. Chicago is the largest interlining center in North America, handling around 10 million TEUs per year, a location at the junction of the Eastern, Western and Canadian rail systems.

Starting with the setting of NAFTA in 1994 rail mergers resulted in the involvement of Canadian and American operators offering cross-border services. Canadian National and Canadian Pacific acquired lines in the United States enabling better connections with the Chicago hub as well as with New Orleans when CN purchased the Illinois Central Railroad in 1998. Also in 1998 Kansas City Southern purchased Transportacion Ferroviaria Mexicana to form Kansas City Southern de Mexico, which links the port of Lazaro Cardenas to Kansas City and passes through the main economic centers of Mexico (Mexico City, Monterrey). The outcome is a more integrated North American rail system.