The "landbridge" is a generic term meaning use the land freight as a means of transport connection. The landbridge is a way of transporting cargo from a port or an inland point of origin in the shipper's country to an inland point or a port of final destination in the consignee's country using a combination of usually sea and land, or air and land, or air, land and sea transports, instead of relying fully on journey by water or air, using a multimodal transport document known as through bill of lading or combined transport bill of lading.

The three processes of landbridge are as follows:

The major advantage of landbridge is the speed of shipment, based on the fact that the traffic by land or air is generally faster than by sea, and that the nearest distance between the two points is a straight line. The landbridge is useful for cargo semi-sensitive to time and cost.

During winter some ports in the northern hemisphere may be closed due to heavy snow and frozen seaway. Nevertheless, the landbridge keeps the export and import cargo moving.

The volume of ocean freight flowing between the East and the West increased considerably in the past decades, especially between the Far East and North America. The growth in cargo traffic is expected to continue.

The conventional Eastbound ocean traffic from Asia to the East Coast areas in North America flows via the Pacific Ocean---the Trans-Pacific Route. The route crosses the Panama Canal (in central Panama) into the Caribbean Sea, and then into the Atlantic Ocean. It may take 7-8 hours for ships to negotiate the 82-km. Panama Canal through six pairs of locks.

The conventional Westbound ocean traffic from Asia to the Western Europe or the East Coast areas in North America flows via the Mediterranean Sea---the Trans-Mediterranean Route. The route crosses the Indian Ocean, Red Sea (between Africa and Middle East), Suez Canal (in eastern Egypt, a 161-km. canal linking several lakes and without any locks), and then into the Mediterranean Sea, serving the Mediterranean countries and their neighboring landlocked countries. The voyage continues from the Mediterranean Sea through the Strait of Gibraltar (between Spain in Europe and Morocco in Africa) into the Atlantic Ocean, serving the East Coast areas in North America, and from the Atlantic Ocean northbound to the North Sea and Baltic Sea, serving the North Sea and Baltic countries and their neighboring landlocked countries.

An alternate ocean route to the Trans-Mediterranean Route is through the Cape of Good Hope at South Africa, that is, going around the southern tip of the African Continent, but the transit time is much longer.

Panama Canal and Dry Canal
in Relation to the Landbridge Services

The panamax is the draft limits of the Panama Canal, which imposed a ship's carrying capacity limit to around 3,500 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units). Modern container ships exceed the panamax, that is, cannot transit the canal. The future container ships in the deep-sea voyage are expected to be much bigger than those currently in service. The landbridge service that utilizes the West Coast ports in North America becomes more important in the Trans-Pacific Route.

There were plans to build a dry canal---rail line for container traffic---linking the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea in Central American country (e.g. Nicaragua) using the landbridge service, in order to meet the increasing flow of cargo between the East Asia and the North and Latin America.

Feeder Vessels and Transhipments
in Relation to the Landbridge Services

As export and import traffic increases worldwide, large container ships having a load capacity of 80,000 metric tons or more are expected to service the Trans-Pacific Route and other sea routes, calling at a limited number of deep-sea ports at each end of the voyage. Consequently, the network of feeder services serve by the smaller container ship, called the feeder vessel, serving the large deep-sea ports is expected to expand. In the process, a wider application of the landbridge is indispensable, particularly in North America, and the transhipment of export goods will become more frequent in certain trade routes. The ports of Hong Kong (China) and Singapore in Asia and the port of Rotterdam (Netherlands) in Europe, for example, are popular ports of transhipment in the deep-sea voyage.