Glossary

Intermodal Facility (Intermodal Ramp)

Also known as: intermodal ramp, intermodal terminal

A terminal where freight containers are transferred between transportation modes, most commonly between rail and truck, using large cranes or lift equipment to move containers off railcars onto chassis for local drayage.

Intermodal ramps operated by Class I railroads (or, at ports, marine terminal operators) anchor entire regional industrial submarkets because they are the point at which long-haul rail transportation hands off to short-haul trucking, and land within a short drayage radius of a major ramp commands a persistent rent and land-value premium over otherwise comparable sites farther away. The largest intermodal complexes -- Chicago, the Inland Empire, Kansas City, Dallas, and similar hubs -- function as national freight distribution nodes precisely because of this rail-to-truck transfer capability, and industrial developers and investors track ramp capacity expansions and drayage congestion closely as leading indicators of submarket demand.