Boxed and battered.(rail intermodal transportation trends, price competition, revenues)

BYLINE: BY JOHN D. BOYD

Rail intermodal is catching it from all sides. The sector faces tough price competition from trucking, a cooling container import market, and a contraction in housing and automobile manufacturing that has cut into shipments.

Although intermodal is still holding up better than rail carload bulk freight, long-haul intermodal traffic has started to trail its 2006 pace.

David Howland, vice president for rail service at trucker Schneider National, Green Bay, Wis., said the domestic intermodal market is worsening as 2007 goes on and that the nearly unprecedented decline may continue into 2008. He said that in his 30 years in the …