- Introduction
- Step 1. Make freight transportation a cause the entire state can get behind
- Step 2. Reconnect shippers, planners, and policymakers to the value of rail transportation
- Step 3. Alter or reverse the marketplace forces that are damaging transportation efficiency
- Step 4. Measure and compare the total costs and impacts of each transport mode, and of the entire system as a whole
- Step 5. Establish a set of land use codes specifically for commercial development and freight transportation
- Step 6. Stimulate the rail, trucking, and waterway industries to establish a comprehensive and coordinated business plan for growth
- Step 7. Employ new and innovative methods of applying public- and private-sector funding for transportation system improvements
- Step 8. Institute a new, permanent stakeholder think tank to ensure ongoing collaboration between the public and private sectors in the implementation of this business plan
- Conclusion
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Resources for Step 6
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Adobe Acrobat (*.pdf) (11MB)Step 6. Stimulate the rail, trucking, and waterway industries to establish a comprehensive and coordinated business plan for growth
In the early 20th century, needing an expanded network of new roads to augment the highly developed rail system, we positioned the two modes to compete for freight transportation business, rather than coordinate toward an optimal system. The costs of that disconnect are felt to this day. Allowing marketplace competition to drive development pits rail, road, and waterway against each other, handicapping each mode from investing in a long-term plan for growth. Project development in one mode stifles the success of other modes to the detriment of overall system productivity.
As a matter of fact, in a world of increasing population and diminishing natural resources, North America continues to shrink its energy-, space-, and capital-efficient rail system, while moving more freight on roads and highways. In spite of a looming world climate crisis, the hundred year trend of scrapping freight rail lines and building roadways continues unabated. In each of the years 2007 and 2008, the United States alone lost half a percent of its rail system mileage, and 20% since 1990.
We need all modes to advance in concert. Freight transportation demand, regardless of mode, is projected to increase 50%-75% through 2035, so there will be more than enough freight to justify the development of and investment in, a long-term growth plan for each industry. Currently, however, we know of no modal industry-wide growth plans, in rail, trucking, or the waterway industries. This is unacceptable for industries that are vital to our societal interests.
Current efforts to implement transportation system improvements are fraught with stakeholder conflict, competition for government attention, and regulatory prohibitions against private-sector industrial collaboration. OnTrackPennsylvania is designed to address these impediments and move the state toward the level of large-scale, multi-stakeholder coordination that other countries are applying successfully to their transportation development. Private industries require the new platform that OTPa offers to productively organize for the common good without running afoul of anti-trust regulations.