Interregional Travel A New Perspective for Policy Making (2016) / Chapter Skim
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7 Summary of Findings and Recommendations
7 Summary of Findings and Recommendations
Pages 152-173
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From page 152... ...
This study reviews • Interregional travel behavior and patterns, including traveler and trip characteristics and factors that influence travel choices, such as service price, accessibility, convenience, comfort, frequency, reliability, safety, and travel time; • The supply of interregional transportation infrastructure and services by automobile, airplane, bus, and train; • The characteristics of interregional travel markets and corridors that affect their suitability for service by particular modes of transpor tation, including spatial and demographic conditions as revealed by experience in the United States and in other industrialized countries; 152
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From page 153... ...
The scarcity of detailed and up-to-date data on trip making and the absence of organizations and sources of transportation funding that align with interregional corridors are impediments to planning and investing in rail service. Significant attention is therefore given in this report to passenger rail.
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From page 154... ...
Although better travel data are needed for informing transportation investment decisions, evidence in this report indicates a significant gap in the decision-making capacity itself. The absence of funding sources and institutions that align with interregional corridors contributes to this deficiency.
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From page 155... ...
The automobile is used for most interregional trips, especially by fam ilies and other people traveling together for nonbusiness purposes. Understanding the strong appeal of driving for nonbusiness travel is critical in planning transportation investments to accommodate interregional travelers.
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From page 156... ...
Large interregional markets, such as San Francisco–Los Angeles, Washington– New York, Dallas–Houston, and Chicago–Saint Louis, have several dozen flights per day, including flights from secondary airports providing travelers with additional schedule time and location options. Airlines compete mainly with the automobile in most interregional markets, at distances that differ for business and nonbusiness travelers.
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From page 157... ...
However, in most interregional corridors in the United States there are no transportation alternatives to airlines for time-sensitive business trips, since intercity train service in most markets is infrequent and slow. Sparse interregional train service throughout much of the country can be attributed to a number of factors.
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From page 158... ...
Amtrak's ability to exercise control over its right-of-way in the NEC gives it greater opportunity in this corridor than elsewhere to compete with other intercity modes by increasing train frequencies and reducing schedule times. Even on the passenger-oriented NEC rail lines, however, the capacity for intercity train service is constrained by having to share track with eight commuter railroads as well as freight trains operating over portions of the corridor.
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From page 159... ...
The intercity bus requires little capital investment and can quickly adjust schedules and service locations. Curbside service allows bus operators to reduce their fixed costs by dispensing with terminals and ticket offices.
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From page 160... ...
Unlike buses, which can offer frequent service with as few as 40 passengers per trip, schedule-competitive rail service requires the demand to fill some 200 seats. The closely spaced and linearly aligned large cities along the east coast of Japan's Honshu Island, sometimes referred to as a "string of pearls," is the classic configuration for competitive passenger train service and the site of the world's most heavily used passenger railway, the To ¯kaido high-speed line.
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From page 161... ...
These uncertainties are reduced when a large and well-established ridership base already exists. Other large cities in interregional corridors in the United States have characteristics that may be conducive to expanded passenger rail service.
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From page 162... ...
Most other interregional corridors in the United States pass through multiple states, and an institutional structure that could undertake the necessary data collection, analysis, and planning and that could make major investment decisions is lacking. Because interregional travel corridors often span multiple states, many lack the coordinated planning and funding structures needed to ensure that investments in transportation capacity are made from a corridor-level perspective.
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From page 163... ...
The combination of mode-specific transportation funding and multistate corridors can be particularly problematic for investments in intercity passenger rail. Amtrak's public funding derives mainly from general fund appropriations by Congress and states, since revenues credited to highway and aviation trust funds cannot normally be used to pay for interregional rail infrastructure and services.
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From page 164... ...
The relative scarcity of data and analytical tools for interregional corridors is due in large part to the lack of interregional entities seeking such data and tools on a regular basis. In the United States, the NEC is unique in having many of the geo graphic, demographic, and demand conditions that European and Japanese experience suggests are favorable to public investments in intercity rail.
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From page 165... ...
interregional corridors. The NEC presents far less uncertainty with regard to the potential for passenger rail investments, including investments in high-speed service, to confer benefits.
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From page 166... ...
furthering the analytical tools needed to inform public investments in interregional corridors, and (c) encouraging the formation of interregional planning bodies to help guide the investments.
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From page 167... ...
long-distance travel survey could help capture to inform transportation planning and decision making. The Transportation Research Board's Special Report 304: How We Travel: A Sustainable National Program for Travel Data (TRB 2011)
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From page 168... ...
A national data program could offer guidance on characterizing interregional service offerings and on using the data for analytical and planning purposes. Recommendation: USDOT should support the development and application of state-of-the-art analytical tools for planning and pri oritizing interregional transportation investments, including meth ods for representing the uncertainties that can accompany decisions to invest in long-lived transportation systems that require forecast ing of public benefits and traveler demand.
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From page 169... ...
Many of the analytical tools needed to inform decisions have been developed and are used regularly for transportation planning, particularly by MPOs prioritizing urban transportation investments. As discussed in Chapter 6, travel demand forecasting models have been improved substantially over the past 40 years, driven in large part by the demand from hundreds of MPOs.
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From page 170... ...
These planning and decision-making entities could have a prominent role in identifying corridor-level capital spending priorities, planning specific projects aligned with these priorities, and applying for and aggregating funding for desired projects from multiple revenue sources. The involvement of intercity bus companies, airlines, and railroads would help state and local transportation planners identify opportunities for increasing interregional service options and improving their performance for travelers.
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From page 171... ...
An example is the Mass Transit Account of the Highway Trust Fund. Even if a significant easing of trust fund restrictions is not practical or desirable, a substantial amount of public funding for transportation infrastructure is unrestricted and derived from general fund appropriations, such as funding for intercity passenger rail and for highway and transit spending not covered by trust fund revenues.
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From page 172... ...
However, from time to time the country's interregional corridors are the subject of proposals for large transportation investments, particularly the supply of more frequent and faster passenger train service. Illustrative of this interest are the Obama administration's 2009 plan to devote economic stimulus funds to intercity rail projects across the country2 and California's program to invest in high-speed rail.
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From page 173... ...
2011. Special Report 304: How We Travel: A Sustainable National Program for Travel Data.
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