Industry dashboard
The intermodal system, by the numbers
Follow the box through the data: the scale of the system, where containers enter the continent, where they head inland, how they move, and how it all performs. Filter the port ranking, toggle the volume trend, hover any chart — every figure links to its source.
Where the boxes enter
The coasts and the gateways
Almost everything starts at a marine terminal. Imports split roughly evenly between the East and West coasts now — the East has edged ahead over the past decade — with the Gulf a fast-growing tenth. A handful of gateways dominate the count.
Where they go inland
The hubs and the corridors
From the docks, boxes funnel onto a few dense rail corridors toward a short list of inland hubs — and one city towers over them all as the great interchange between the western and eastern railroads.
Chicago hub complex
~50% of all U.S. intermodal trains pass through metro Chicago — the continent's #1 rail hub
BNSF · UP · CSX · NS · CPKC
BNSF Logistics Park Chicago
~3M-lift design capacity; the most active inland rail terminal in North America
BNSF
UP Global IV
785-acre terminal in the CenterPoint complex
UP
BNSF Hobart / Commerce
Among the world's highest domestic-intermodal volumes
BNSF
Inland Empire (San Bernardino)
Inland transload + IPI region behind LA/Long Beach
BNSF · UP
Memphis hub
Five Class I railroads; a top inland IPI destination
BNSF · UP · NS · CN · CSX
Alliance (BNSF)
Dallas–Fort Worth's primary intermodal hub
BNSF
CN Brampton Intermodal Terminal
CN's flagship Canadian intermodal terminal
CN
Major regional hubs
Densest corridors
The lanes that carry the freight
- 1LA/Long Beach → Chicago — The benchmark transcontinental lane — highest density in North America
- 2Pacific Northwest → Chicago / Midwest — BNSF Northern Transcon; much PNW import volume routes here
- 3LA/Long Beach → Dallas–Fort Worth — Fast-growing South-Central pairing
- 4LA/Long Beach → Memphis — Major IPI terminus; drove BNSF's 2024 Marion, AR reopening
- 5Chicago → Northeast (Harrisburg / NY–NJ) — Eastern distribution leg off the Chicago interchange
- 6LA/Long Beach → Atlanta / Southeast — Transcon IPI into the Southeast cluster
The densest corridors carry the majority of intermodal volume · Sources
How they move
Mode and equipment
Most import boxes still leave the port by truck, but four in ten reach rail — and on the rails, containers have almost entirely displaced trailers, the shift that made double-stacking possible.
Inland mode split
How imports leave the port
Of import boxes at major North American ports in 2024, most still move inland by truck — but four in ten reach rail, directly or after transloading. Hover a slice for its share.
- Truck59.6%
- Intermodal rail (IPI)24.2%
- Transload then rail16.1%
Trailers to containers
The COFC takeover
U.S. intermodal rail shifted overwhelmingly from trailers-on-flatcar (TOFC) to containers-on-flatcar (COFC) — the change that made double-stacking, and modern intermodal economics, possible.
How the system performs
Volume and efficiency
Volume tracks the economy — the 2018 peak, the 2023 freight recession, the 2024–25 recovery. And the economics rest on simple physics: a ton of freight moves hundreds of miles on a single gallon of fuel by rail.
Volume over time
U.S. rail intermodal, 2014–2025
Originations in millions of units (containers plus trailers). Toggle to year-over-year change to see the cycle.
Why it holds together
Rail's efficiency edge
The economic and environmental case for line-hauling on steel wheels, then trucking only the first and last miles.
Every figure on this dashboard is cited on the data & sources page, with the source, the period it represents, and any caveats. Figures are the most recent publicly reported values as of early 2026.