Pacific Northwest Intermodal Rail and Port Facilities need solutions to remain competitive as an important component of a balance transportation supply system capacity, keeping cost in-controls, and sustainability concerns that warrant more transportation technology to be introduced to the market place. The concern for shippers is time and re-handle cargo, interchanging with different transportation systems, to turn profits in to assets and small inventory. Intermodal Rail requires better market forecasting and visibility, to control product demand flow, in advance to the supply demand

Having capacity to take advantages of short-waterway shipping corridors, which rail-carferries offer a seamless transition between interchange modes, thereby, quicker turn around, and less buffered inventory. But train carferries have yet to make the same impact that "barge services" have made in the Pacific Northwest and the reluctance of shippers to use high performance capacity of carferry technology, as other countries have been utilizing for a century. The Seattle Spartan Carferry Project has the means to turn-tide to this niche market.

The rail and port industry's must taking a direct interest and approach to carferry technology to update and inform traditional shippers, ATD LINES is taking a market approach to new strategies to introduce intermodal rail shippers to marine rail solutions.

The Seattle, Washington to Whittier, Alaska, proposed project will utilizing the SS Spartan Class Carferry, as Washington-Alaska Waterway Corridor has a captive audience, that will provide express shipping and passenger services, targeting two major markets, as in freight and tourism opportunities.

Many of the marine routes that once provided carferry service, has lost the competitive edge over the year, do to have limited knowledge on emerging technologies and lack of understanding on how to re-develop marine rail service. Marine rail carferry service is a niche market for rail operation that can only operate to locations, where the rail service providers and shippers have a waterway corridor with major target market.

Example: SS Badger/Lake Michigan Carferry water corridor for domestic rail business between Manitowoc, Wisconsin and Ludington. Michigan is a market waiting to be re-developed. The niche market is "private railcar industry" which include operating museums, Amtrak specials and various rail association within private rail passenger industry, which are disadvantage towards access to marine rail service compared to the land routes.

In comparison, Washington-Alaska Waterway Corridor has a slow awkward domestic marine rail barge service, with restricting port opportunities and preventing tourism service in its practice and operations.

Marine rail carferry services can transport railcars containing bulk, packaged, liquid shipments and passenger trains, in which product volumes are distinguish between boxcars, hoppers, gondola, tank, flatbeds, double-stack containers, including single and superliner class passenger cars. Including the capacity to transport automobiles and trucks with in the same cargo decks of a ship.

There are many advantages of shipping with carferries in a combination of auto rail, marine and passenger, which provides a commitment opportunity toward "environmental greener objectives", which reduces over-the-road congestion and alternative route to traditional auto-rail land crossings and air.

Marine rail carferry shippers benefit from consistent “express” transportation services, efficient utilization of equipment and providing port-rail-passenger ship solutions, toward supply and demand requirements. The combination of rail and marine services provides the ability to load and transport a large volume of rail cargo that requires no rehandling. Rail shippers who utilize land-waterway corridors can reduce lead times, inventory levels, private freight car fleet reduction and increase in private railcar passenger rail line community tourism do to a continuous flow of beneficial rail traffic.

The SS SPARTAN/Pacific Coastal Carferry target markets focus on Washington-Alaska trade are within connecting scope of national long haul operations and port interchange to the Alaska Railroad connection via Seattle-Prince Rupert-Whittier ports of call at pier-48 provides direct interchange to 5 Class I-III railroads and the private passenger railcar industry, providing ship-rail interchanges to target rail line community markets.

The "Class I" long haul railroads serving the Port of Seattle, are: