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February 25, 2000 10:12 AM, EST

LONG BEACH, Calif. — The leader of the nation’s largest shippers group got a blunt answer from a representative of the railroad industry Feb. 23 in response to his call for allowing trucks to carry heavier loads in exchange for moving the freight partly over the railroads.

“We have absolutely no interest in such a deal,” Association of American Railroads lobbyist Paul Oakley said at a Transportation Research Board conference on global intermodal freight, moments after National Industrial Transportation League President Edward M. Emmett made the proposal.

Emmett first offered the suggestion in August at the annual conference of the Intermodal Association of North America during a panel discussion on the challenges facing intermodalism.

Oakley countered by saying the proposal would be unenforceable because the federal limit for freight not being transported intermodally would remain at 80,000 pounds but the different loads would be indistinguishable.

For the full story, see the Feb. 28 print edition of Transport Topics. .