Double-stack rail transport

Double-stack rail transport is a form of intermodal freight transport where intermodal containers are stacked two high on railroad cars. Introduced in North America in 1984, double stack has become increasingly common there, being used for nearly 70% of United States intermodal shipments. Using double stack technology, a freight train of a given length can carry roughly twice as many containers, sharply reducing costs per container. On most North American railroads, special well cars are used for double-stack to reduce the needed vertical clearance and to lower the center of gravity of a loaded car. In addition, the well car design significantly reduces damage in transit and provides greater cargo security by cradling the lower containers so their doors cannot be opened. A succession of larger container sizes have been introduced to further increase shipping productivity on shipments within North America.

Double-stack rail operations are growing in other parts of the world, but are often constrained by clearance and other infrastructure limitations.

Containers have weight limits designed to fit road trucks, which have clearly smaller weight limits than trains. A common limit for railways is 8 tonnes (7.9 long tons; 8.8 short tons) per meter train length and 22.5 tonnes (22.1 long tons; 24.8 short tons) per axle. A four axle container car can take 90 tonnes (99.2 short tons; 88.6 long tons). Since a container is limited to 30.5 tonnes (33.6 short tons; 30.0 long tons) (plus a rail car), single stacking clearly does not use the load capacity of the railway. A 20-foot (6.1 m) container is limited to 24 tonnes (26.5 short tons; 23.6 long tons) and two such can fit into a car for a 40-foot (12.2 m) container, or even three if double-stacking, but not four unless very high axle load is permitted. The North American railways permit two 53-foot (16.15 m) or four 20-foot (6.1 m) containers as shown in the images on this page.

Another consideration is the maximum weight of a train. A maximum length train in Europe, 750 m (2,461 ft) long can have 50 container cars with a total weight of 2,250 tonnes (2,480 short tons; 2,210 long tons), and more if 20 ft containers are included. This is not so far from the limit using standard European couplers. Double-stacking requires allowing higher train weight to be meaningful, since it is higher train weights that saves costs. In the U.S., the AAR coupler used allows much higher train weight.

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