Trains in Europe are about 90 TEU, with them being capped by terminal handling capacity and legal maximums. Rail length at terminals in LA seem to be similar to Rotterdam and Antwerp: 600-900m. Let’s assume US freight trains can double their capacity by double stacking their trains. 180 TEU per train is still well under an average barge size.
I couldn’t find modal split numbers for LA, but I’m willing to bet their trucking share is above the ~55% Rotterdam achieves (some 10-15% is rail, remaining share is inland barges)
Trains are ofcourse still way more efficient than trucks.
Okay, it doesn't technically do that, the Jones Act just requires you to use a US-owned US-built US-crewed US-operated ship. These ships, in general, don't exist. Oh, sure, there are a few that go back and forth to Puerto Rico, and there are a few wastewater ships running up and down the East River in New York, but no one would dream of using ships like these for general cargo. They are not up to modern container-shipping standards. Puerto Rico pays a premium for a few of these freighters and tankers but generally does more to import goods from the Caribbean and Central America than from the US; when there are hurricanes, the President has to issue a waiver so they can move disaster recovery supplies in from the mainland.
Fish shipped from Alaska are unloaded on the east coast in Canada, where they put on trucks, and the trucks are put on a carrier train which makes a round trip back and forth for the length of the cargo terminal to qualify as being "shipped by Canadian rail" for US legal purposes, and then the trucks drive into the US with the fish. A related law afflicts cruise ships, which always stop somewhere in Canada, Alaska, or the Caribbean, on their way between US ports.
One of the premises of the Jones Act was that it will preserve American shipbuilding for national security™ purposes. This has more or less utterly failed. However, Joe Biden's campaign promises specfically called out fortifying the Jones Act so that it would be even stronger, so, don't hold your breath on change.
Can you find a citation for this, I would love to add the example to an upcoming book.
You can also follow a recent mini-saga in The Wall Street Journal:
- "Mr. Biden’s Fish Story", Sept. 9, 2021
- "How 26 Million Pounds of American Fish Got Stuck in Canada", Sept. 16, 2021
- "A Victory Over the Jones Act", Oct. 11, 2021
You can also read about it from the people who want to hold these fish shipments hostage to their vessels: https://www.americanmaritimepartnership.com/articles/alaskan...
You can also read about Filet-o-Fish switching from Alaskan to Russian fish (and obviously NOT to American vessels) as a consequence of this saga: https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/cbp-bayside-canad...
Last I heard Europe was in the middle of an energy crisis which could easily turn out to be linked to supply chain disruptions. It has been long enough for the slow-rolling-wave nature of economic disasters to start surfacing, but it is too early to raise a head up and talk about cause and effect without some citations.