8.1 The political role of transportation in the United States differs substantially from its political role in England, courtesy of its deep involvement with multimodalism.1 The ‘intermodal system’ of the United States is a transport network that links the transfer of cargo from one side of the country to the other.2 Its aim is to reduce costs as much as possible, and to do this, it requires economies of scale (for terminal operators) and economies of scope (for carriers and port workers).3 All of which gives different context to third party protection in the United States.