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

A Freight Plan for the NYMTC Region
• 2.2 Challenges Identified during the Plan
In general, the NYMTC region’s freight system serves to move the large volume of goods
needed to keep the nation’s largest regional economic engine running. However, those
who reside and do business in the region face high levels of traffic congestion, which
impact the predominant mode of freight travel in the region – trucks. As residents, this
increases their cost of living. As businesspeople, this forces them to pay more for freight
services. There are a number of specific issues that, in aggregate, create less than efficient
conditions to move freight. The five deficiencies identified below relate to broad regional
issues, specific bottlenecks, or detailed terminal interconnections at particular facilities.
1. Lack of Coordination
To meet the dramatic forecast growth in goods movement, the NYMTC region will
need to ensure the coordinated and rational use of all of its transportation resources.
Freight transportation must be viewed as an overall system. Historically, freight
transportation has evolved around independent modal networks, each competing
with the others in a redundant and often destructive manner. By encouraging modal
systems to work together, the region can focus its energy on the more serious issue of
balancing its need for convenient passenger transportation with its need for efficient
and high-quality freight transportation. In this way, the region can increase its share
of intermodal traffic.
2. Modal Dependence
One significant and recurring deficiency is the region’s overwhelming dependence for
freight transportation on a highway infrastructure that can become “gridlocked” at
any time of the day. Truck gridlock causes adverse economic and environmental
impacts from delays and air pollution, and limits the capacity of major rail, port, and
air terminals that depend on trucks for final goods delivery. Investing in a more
modally balanced and efficient freight system could alleviate many regional deficiencies,
and at less cost than a strategy that seeks only to expand the regional truck infrastructure.
The regional rail freight infrastructure has not been sufficiently developed
to provide a competitive alternative to trucking. While rail will not become the dominant
mode of transport, or even eliminate the need for expanded truck infrastructure,
an improved regional rail infrastructure can accommodate a significant portion of the
large forecast increase in freight volumes.
3. State of Infrastructure
Freight mobility is restricted by limitations on the region’s infrastructure. The region
lacks infrastructure appropriate to conducting modern freight transportation operations.
Freight movements over both rail and highway systems are restricted in locations
where inadequate dimensional envelopes prevent the passage of modern rail
cars or truck trailers. As a result, private logistical approaches have been required to
reroute freight shipments, thereby increasing costs and community impacts.
Cambridge Systematics, Inc. 2-7