Multi-State Freight Transportation Organizations (2001)

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Multi-State Freight Transportation Organizations Contents Executive Summary ........................................................................................................ 1  1.0  Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1-1  1.1  Research Need ............................................................................................. 1-1  1.2  Research Objective ...................................................................................... 1-1  1.3  Research Approach ..................................................................................... 1-3  1.4  Organization of Report .............................................................................. 1-4  2.0  Identifying Key Characteristics of Existing Multi-State Organizations ...................................................................................................... 2-1  2.1  Identification and Review of Existing Organizations ............................ 2-1  2.2  Potential Models ......................................................................................... 2-2  3.0  Understanding the Legal Framework of Multi-State Organizations ........ 3-1  3.1  Multi-State Freight Organizations Organized and Incentivized Pursuant to Federal Grant Condition Administered by a Federal Project Office ............................................................................................... 3-2  3.2  Multi-State Freight Organizations Created Through Interstate Compacts ..................................................................................................... 3-5  3.3  Multi-State Freight Organizations Enabled as Federally Chartered Organizations ........................................................................... 3-9  4.0  Developing a Successful Multi-State Freight Organization....................... 4-1  4.1  Conclusion ................................................................................................... 4-1  4.2  Research Recommendations ..................................................................... 4-3 

Multi-State Freight Transportation Organizations ii Tables Table 1.1  Institutional Types ................................................................................... 1-2  Table 2.1  Classification of Organizations (see list of Acronyms below) ........... 2-3  Table 3.1  Summary of Legal Frameworks for Multi-State Freight Transportation Organizations .............................................................. 3-14 

Multi-State Freight Transportation Organizations ES-1 Executive Summary Freight transportation trips often involve multiple modes and routes that cross several states. To move efficiently, freight movement—regional, national, and global—must cross jurisdictional boundaries with as few impediments as possible. To make it possible to plan and invest to assure reliable freight trips, multi-state freight organizations are needed, especially where the costs of freight improvements are borne by a single state, but benefits accrue to several states. Experience to date with voluntary multi-state freight organizations shows they can contribute valuable consensus-building efforts and planning to move projects forward, but cannot advance capital and operations projects because they lack the legal authority and therefore the financial resources to do so. At the other end of the spectrum, authorities created by interstate compacts give states and other entities the legal mandate and ability to implement projects, but the process of building political and legislative agreement to create interstate compacts can be so time consuming and arduous a process that few encompass more than two states, too small a scale to address many freight transportation needs. This study examined approaches to establishing multi-state freight transportation organizations that can develop and implement long-term investment plans. Emphasis was placed on the legal and financial requirements as well as the composition, structure, and decision-making facets of the organization. Sixty-five multi-state organizations were identified, researched, and classified by their legal structure and ability to carry out their intended functions, including policy making, planning, capital investment, operations, regulation, and research and education. The review suggested three models might support multi-state freight organizations: multi-state freight organizations organized and incentivized pursuant to federal grant conditions administered by a federal project office; organizations created through interstate compacts; and organizations enabled as federally chartered corporations. An analysis of the legal framework and experience with these approaches concluded that creating multi-state freight organizations through a federally chartered organization might be the most practical approach to achieving organizations that can develop and implement long-term investment plans. This approach would involve the following: • Multi-state freight policy guidance as part of national freight policy; • Congressional action to create a federally chartered, national freight transportation corporation and subsidiary, multi-state freight transportation corporations or entities; • Defined roles and responsibilities for multi-state freight organizations to include consideration and implementation of multi-state freight transportation plans and programs covering policy coordination, planning,

Multi-State Freight Transportation Organizations ES-2 capital investment, operations, research and education across jurisdictional lines; • Federal, state, and private sector participation in the governance of corporations; a federal role and participation in the national corporation will be critical to address national capacity and connectivity, but strong state and private sector representation in the regional multi-state entities is mandatory to ensure commitment to and utilization of these organizations; • Professional staff within each of the regional corporations, and a small national staff to support policy coordination, research, and education; and • Ability to accept and pool funding and fees for service from an array of federal, state and private sources. The key problem identified in this report was the difficulty of funding and operating multi-state freight institutions across state lines in multiple jurisdictions. While enacting legislation that creates new, federally chartered entities would take considerable time and effort, it is possible this could be completed in a far timelier manner than would likely be needed to adopt a system of regional, multi-state interstate compacts or an entirely new federal program, together with a new federal agency or project office. A federally chartered corporation that operated through state-driven regional freight corporations could help ensure public sector planning and investment at a geographic scale that matches current economic regions and freight carrier markets. While promising, there is no existing organization that can be used as an immediate template. As a next step, the study recommends developing case studies—extrapolating from existing organizations—that will illustrate how the envisioned organization would operate, and outline the specifics of the legislation required to enable it.