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[quote user="nbrodar"] I had a rather fascinating conversation with our intermodal guy today.There is virtually no difference in loading time between single and double stack.  The main difference is you need an extra person to apply and lock the IBCs.[/quote]You evidently didn't ask the questions I would have asked, settling for the facile rather than the pertinent.  Of course you can load 100 containers onto a double stack as fast as a single stack, if the containers are on the ready!  That's the facile summation.  The pertinent summation is contained in your next paragraph....[quote]The biggest consumer of time is the sorting of the boxes into destination blocks.  The boxes must be sorted into destination blocks, and then sub-destinations within those blocks.[/quote]Well there we go!  That's the pertinent take on the subject, aka the need for multiple pre-sorts so that the right container will go into the right platform on the right train, aka heavies on the bottom, lighter ones on the top, etc.  Thus, you have to go through multiple minutiations in the container marshalling yard just to make double stack appear more efficient.Nick, why didn't you ask about the ship to rail time comparisons?  Because single stack would allow for unfettered direct ship to rail loading/unloading which allows a complete bypass of the container marshalling yard morass, something you can't effectively do with double stacks.  That's why any OA operator that shows up at the dock with only single stack platforms would easily take business from the big boys, John B's obscure Dutch example notwithstanding - having a dockside container crane moving an extra 15 feet on average is small potatoes compared to the cost of dockside space crammed 10 high with containers needing all sorts of sorting.  I guess I dare not bring up the fact that railroads spent a whole lot of cash to make bridges and tunnels double stack compatible, the cost of which was/is passed on to shippers and taxpayers.I also have that inside knowledge of BNSF refusing to allow a 3pl single stack operation over it's Stampede Pass line, a line without double stack clearance but with ample capacity.  It was all upside and no downside for BNSF, but apparently this almost religious dedication to the double stack concept prevented this new business, which of course has reverted to the mode of last resort.BTW - Someone please buy Ed B a world atlas so that he can see just how well the continent of Europe would fit inside Texas.  In reality, you could fit a couple dozen Texas's inside of Europe.
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