nymtc regional freight plan - New York Metropolitan Transportation ...

A Freight Plan for the NYMTC Region
7.0 Financing
The NYMTC region faces significant capital financing needs for freight. Historically, it
was believed that the private sector, which operates most freight services, would take care
of these needs, driven by profit and the need to expand. Now, freight needs have come to
be considered as societal needs as well due to the externalities generated by freight
movement. These externalities include congestion, air pollution, community impacts, and
wear and tear on the infrastructure. In addition, in the NYMTC region, unlike in many
areas, much of the rail freight infrastructure is publicly owned but privately operated. For
these reasons, various levels of government have proposed or implemented projects and
programs to address freight needs. Governments at the Federal, state, and local levels
have made limited funding available for some categories of freight projects.
The purpose of this section of the freight plan is to:
• Describe the financial needs of freight movement in the NYMTC region;
• Examine issues relating to finance;
• Summarize funding sources; and
• Discuss follow up activities.
• 7.1 Financial Needs
The NYMTC Regional Transportation Plan specifies transportation capital funding needs
broken down by state of good repair, normal replacement, and capacity expansion. The
Plan identifies $143 billion in projects during the years 2000 through 2025, versus a likely
funding allocation of $150 billion from all Federal, state, and local sources. Because under
Federal regulations regional plans must be financially constrained, the Program of Projects
is driven by an estimate of available funding, and not by an estimate of need. The transportation
needs of the region far exceed available funding. This relationship of projects,
funding, and needs is shown in Figure 7.1.
Based on the limited cost estimates made available for this study, projects identified in
Section 5.0 for further advancement or study would cost approximately $2 billion. These
projects have cost estimates in the right-hand column of Tables ES.1 and 5.1. In addition,
the Cross Harbor tunnel and ancillary facilities would cost between $4.4 and $7.3 billion,
depending on whether a single or double tunnel system was constructed.
Cambridge Systematics, Inc. 7-1