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A Freight Plan for the NYMTC Region 2.3.5 Insufficient System Redundancy and Security Although security issues were not the primary focus of this study, concerns associated with the security of the region’s transportation infrastructure have been paramount since the events of September 11. In the immediate aftermath of the attack, freight transportation was impacted as a result of the immediate systemic effects of the events including road closures, the Single-Occupant Vehicle (SOV) ban in the southern half of Manhattan, random truck inspections at the entrances to bridges and tunnels, the grounding of the nation’s air carriers, and heightened enforcement activities at international gateways. However, the freight infrastructure and service system recovered relatively rapidly. Truck volumes on bridges and tunnels returned to pre- September 11 levels (accounting for the impact of the regional recession), and rail and air shipments resumed earlier patterns. Roadways reopened and operational restrictions were eased or eliminated. Shippers and receivers reported no material shortages or operational disruptions except those immediately related to the events of September 11. No major changes were made in warehouse and distribution facility security. Trucking companies reported that they had established a new equilibrium within one to two months of the events. “Fuel shortages” were increased due to both the increased price of fuel and the general cost increase caused by increased variability in travel times due to heightened security inspections. The rail industry experienced some slow orders and a three-day ban on hazardous materials shipments, but otherwise resumed normal operations with increased vigilance and field security. Several strategies have been suggested for further regional study to improve the current situation. One involves developing better staging areas for vehicle inspections at bridges and tunnels, none of which were designed to accommodate this activity. Another concerns the promotion of regional redundancy in freight movement, with particular concern focused on the region’s dependency on the George Washington Bridge for cross-Hudson freight movement. Several projects included in this report would address this redundancy issue – most particularly the Cross Harbor rail freight tunnel which would create an entirely new crossing of the Hudson River for freight, and several proposed improvements that together would better enable the Southern Corridor to handle more trucks in the event of an interruption in Northern Corridor. Third, continuing to expand the region’s robust marine transport system which is presently used primarily to move petroleum and other bulk products. Several major freight-related security initiatives are being undertaken on the national level. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection office within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is building on the U.S. Custom’s history of successful partnerships with shippers and carriers. Industry partners, many of them part of sophisticated supply chains, are working with Customs on deeper integration of security and supply chain processes through the Customs Trade Partnership (CT-PAT) Initiative. International governmental cooperation is evident in such initiatives as the Smart Border Accord between the United States and Canada in which the two countries are testing technology and improved processes to enhance security in North America. For railroads, DHS is experimenting with x-ray or gamma ray devices to screen containers or cars of moving trains at Cambridge Systematics, Inc. 2-19
A Freight Plan for the NYMTC Region borders to avoid having to stop them. The FHWA and FAA recently participated in an air cargo test of an electronic manifest imprinted on a smart card along with the truck driver biometric information so that the load could be electronically cleared upon arrival at the air cargo terminal at O’Hare Airport in Chicago. Reaping technology benefits from applications such as ITS for freight security also requires consistent and coherent standards, many of them international. The FHWA’s ITS program is pursuing intermodal freight standards in several areas such as data exchange and radio frequency identification (RFID) tracking devices such as truck transponders and container seals. The I-95 Corridor Coalition did a comprehensive scan of Federal and state security policies, programs, and initiatives for truck trailer and container security. AASHTO has assembled a committee and published initial guidance for state DOTs on security for transportation infrastructure. 2.3.6 Conclusion The problems identified above will worsen as the region continues to grow and prosper if action is not taken to fix them. Despite the recent recession and the aftermath of September 11, strong economic growth is still forecast for the region over the next 25 years. An efficient transportation system is essential to achieve this growth, provide economic opportunity for the region’s residents, encourage businesses to locate and expand in the region, and to enhance the region’s preeminence in such fields as finance, technology and the arts. The actions identified in the roadmap were analyzed for this project by means of limited quantitative and qualitative methods as described in more detail in Section 3.0 More extensive analyses are being undertaken by project proponents. Based on the analyses conducted for this project or those analyses already conducted by project proponents, the identified actions could be expected to meet the following plan objectives: • Reduced future rate of growth in truck volumes on some roadways; • Improved traffic operations on some roadways; • Increased rail mode share in the region; • Improved environmental quality; and • A more efficient and cost-effective freight delivery system. It is unrealistic to expect that any single project or set of projects could solve all of the challenges associated with regional freight movement and traffic congestion in such a dense, mature region. This section of the Plan has provided basic information on freight characteristics. It also has described the challenges the region faces to improve the freight system. Section 3.0, Potential Strategies and How They Were Evaluated, and Section 4.0, Strategies of the Regional Freight Plan, discuss, explore, and report on the evaluation of potential actions that could address the issues discussed above. Cambridge Systematics, Inc. 2-20
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