DOT embraces need for intermodal freight policy
The Obama administration is elevating freight infrastructure to the top of its transportation policy agenda, giving prominence to a sector that has long been short-changed in terms of funding and direction to states and regional authorities.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on Monday talked about the need for a national freight strategy that fits within an overarching transportation plan, and creating a new governing paradigm that treats the system as interconnected rather than as individual modes heavily weighted toward passenger traffic.
'For too long, we have operated and funded our transportation systems in a piecemeal fashion — with highways, freight railroads, seaports and aviation operating in parallel, yet never fully synchronized. That's going to change.
'We need policies that treat these transportation assets holistically — as a highly sophisticated network that ensures commerce can flow freely,' LaHood said.
 |
| LaHood |
As part of that effort, he said, his team is carefully studying the recommendations made in January by the Maritime Transportation System National Advisory Council (MTSNAC), a federal advisory panel composed of 30 representatives from industry and labor.
LaHood spoke at a supply chain conference in Washington co-sponsored by the departments of Transportation and Commerce that marked their first substantive collaboration on an issue that cuts across economic development and transportation.
Policies that promote international trade and increase goods moving through ports and onto railroads, highways and waterways, for example, could be coordinated with the Department of Transportation to make sure sufficient capacity exists to efficiently handle the extra traffic. The Commerce Department is interested in improving U.S. freight infrastructure to increase the competitiveness of American firms doing business domestically or abroad. Some audience members suggested that a similar partnership between the DOT and Energy Department is needed because of the confluence of energy, environmental and transportation policy.
Freight transportation has long been the orphan mode within the DOT and state agencies. Building support for freight funding and financing is difficult because:
' Freight doesn't have a dedicated federal agency champion.
' Transportation planning mostly ignores freight stakeholders.
' Freight projects cross many jurisdictions that won't take the financial lead on something that only partially benefits them.
' Government and industry often have competing interests.
' Industry lacks consensus about which projects are worthy based on fears that some sector or region may gain a competitive advantage.
The DOT began formulating a national freight policy framework and solicited freight stakeholder input during the Bush administration, but the effort eventually fell by the wayside several years ago.
'The bottom line is, we must find solutions to the congested and inefficient movement of freight through major metropolitan regions,' LaHood said.
A national, multimodal freight transportation system can be created by focusing on key commercial corridors, building multistate coalitions and regional transportation priorities, he added.
The secretary called on Congress to provide 'sufficient resources' in the upcoming multiyear transportation spending plan 'to improve freight system performance, freight mobility, intermodal coordination, energy efficiency, and environmental stewardship.' Leveraging public money to attract private investment for infrastructure projects can help close the funding gap between needs and dwindling gas tax revenues, he said.
LaHood's statement lays the ground for the administration's own proposal to Congress for reauthorizing and reforming surface transportation programs. The so-called highway bill expires at the end of September, but most political observers do not expect Congress to complete a new bill until the middle of next year, at the earliest.
In the meantime, the DOT is taking other steps to increase the prominence of freight. The Bush administration last October created the Innovative Program Delivery Office, which is looking at the program and project delivery process with an eye towards improving revenue generation, financing and procurement tools. The office, along with the Federal Highway Administration's Office of Freight Management and Operations, is also working to bring freight transportation and freight interests into the planning process.
 |
| Obama |
There is also increasing talk about reinstating an Office of Intermodalism at the policy level and creating a National Infrastructure Bank that would focus on financing merit-based projects of national or regional significance. President Obama's 2010 budget includes start-up capital for a National Infrastructure Bank.
Installing an Office of Intermodalism within the Office of the Secretary of Transportation and hiring modal freight specialists within the Office of Policy, are among the recommendations made by MTSNAC.
The industry board also said any national freight policy should support maintenance of freight infrastructure, regional freight projects, short-sea shipping as an alternative to highway movements, and private sector efforts to improve system efficiency. Federal policy should also strive to assert federal jurisdiction over interstate and foreign commerce and provide transportation service providers with single, national standards and regulations that override overlapping state rules.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said at the symposium that 'if there ever was an area that is ripe for major reorganization it's the DOT,' and the stovepipe approach to infrastructure funding.
He noted there are 108 different transportation programs in funding silos. A transportation policy commission chartered by Congress recommended 16 months ago that DOT programs be consolidated into 10 functional areas.
Warner said as governor of Virginia he often wondered why the United States didn't have a true national transportation policy, but now understands it is the result of how the DOT and Congress are set up to oversee and manage transportation. Congressional committees chop up responsibility for roads, rail, ports, airports, transit and waterways and treat them as unrelated subjects, he noted. ' Eric Kulisch