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

A Freight Plan for the NYMTC Region
2.0 Freight Transportation in the
NYMTC Region Today and in
the Future
The purpose of this section of the NYMTC Regional Freight Plan is to provide background
on freight trends and freight system characteristics, to discuss specific challenges and
issues arising from these trends, and to identify specific ways in which these challenges
manifest themselves in the regional freight system.
• 2.1 Existing and Forecast Conditions
2.1.1 Volume of Freight
Forecast economic growth in the 10-county NYMTC region is expected to significantly
increase the volume of freight moved in the region. The region already experiences the
highest volume of freight movement of any metropolitan area in the nation. Existing and
forecast conditions are described in terms of overall volume, how freight is moved, the
commodities that are moved, and origins and destinations. Regional commodity flows
are expected to grow from 333 million annual tons in 1998 to 490.5 million annual tons in
2025, a 47 percent increase. This trend is shown by county in Figure 2.1. Nationally, it is
anticipated that the volume of freight movement will increase by 68 percent between 1998
and 2020, as shown in Figure 2.2. Thus, the growth of freight movement in the region is
forecast to be slightly lower than in the nation as a whole. However, more recent data
produced by the Cross Harbor Freight Movement EIS shows that the rate of increase is
now forecast to be higher than the national average. In either event, this rate of growth is
significant and surpasses most other indicators of regional economic growth such as
population and employment.
Cambridge Systematics, Inc. 2-1