California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology

Intermodal transportation entails the coordinated movement of different types of transportation (rail, truck, automobile, etc.) to serve the needs of travelers and shippers. The purpose of this report is to provide a vision for systems to coordinate intermodal operations in California in the future, and also to document the types of systems that are being used today in a range of transportation modes. An intermodal system could, conceivably, establish a center (or centers) that is responsible for the joint operation of multiple modes of transportation. This is not our preferred vision. Instead, we envision that these systems will retain their current organizational and modal identifies in the future. However, systems will be developed to provide interconnections when benefits are significant. Keywords: Transportation Management Centers, Intermodal Transportation, System Architecture, Transportation Systems Management