Multimodal Freight Transportation Within the Great Lakes--Saint Lawrence Basin (2012) / Chapter Skim
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15 3.1 GLSLB: Regional Context 3.1.1 Economic Importance of the GLSLB Region The markets and population bases around the GLSLB are substantial, as are the transportation needs derived from these markets. Twenty-eight percent of American economic activity (in eight states)
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16 Multimodal Freight Transportation Within the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence Basin Figure 3-2. Demographic importance of the GLSLB region in Canada and the United States, 2009 (Source: Census Bureau and Statistics Canada)
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Findings and Applications 17 in GDP, $200 billion in personal income, and $87 billion in taxes. Just over half of the freight output in the region occurred in the trucking industry, over 4% in marine transportation, about 3.3% accrued due to pipelines, 11% in the rail freight industry, and the remaining 26% in air cargo.
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18 Multimodal Freight Transportation Within the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence Basin and final production to markets where goods are consumed. This analysis may be thought of as "supply-chain" impact.
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Findings and Applications 19 Each of these supply chains uses a different mix of modes, supports different industries, and has a different set of economic impacts on the region. In the GLSLB as a whole, 60% of total employment can be attributed to regional commodity flows (mostly intra-state and intra-provincial flows)
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20 Multimodal Freight Transportation Within the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence Basin flows represent only 6% of the value of goods being shipped. Their economic importance, however, well outweighs their value.
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Findings and Applications 21 (mostly grains, in particular corn and wheat) accounted for 11%.
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22 Multimodal Freight Transportation Within the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence Basin that performance can be a function of much more than these factors, but these provide a practical basis for providing an overview of performance. Capacity.
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Findings and Applications 23 handling requirements, closure of St. Lawrence Seaway for three months of the year, regulatory barriers, perception, competition from railways, etc.)
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24 Multimodal Freight Transportation Within the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence Basin case in the GLSLB specifically. Among other factors, the safety record of the marine mode is related to the lack of congestion on open waters and the extensive training/certification required for marine workers.
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Findings and Applications 25 Harbor Maintenance Tax: a value-based tax levied on cargo discharged in U.S. ports.
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26 Multimodal Freight Transportation Within the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence Basin Wisconsin has nearly five times more inbound than outbound rail traffic, Indiana has roughly balanced tonnages.3 Figure 3-13 provides an overview of traffic handled by railways in the GLSLB. Figure 3-14 provides an illustration of trade value at GLSLB rail border crossings.
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Findings and Applications 27 3.3.2.4 Trends GLSLB rail traffic has increased annually, except in 2008 when it decreased with the economic downturn. The share of the GLSLB rail traffic has been fairly stable (between 52% and 53%)
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28 Multimodal Freight Transportation Within the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence Basin Figure 3-14. Trade value at GLSLB rail border crossings, 2007 (Source: BTS North American Transborder Freight Data)
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Findings and Applications 29 Figure 3-16. Trends and forecast for tonnage handled in GLSLB rail network, 2001–2020 (Source: Transportation Situation and Outlook Report 2007)
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30 Multimodal Freight Transportation Within the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence Basin Infrastructure issues: capacity-constrained rail infrastructures, especially around Chicago, create hold-ups, and local residents often oppose new rail infrastructure projects. Low-density lines often struggle to generate enough revenue to cover maintenance costs.
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Findings and Applications 31 raised the bar for access to heavily traveled mainline corridors. Most carriers require extensive side track structures and switching arrangements, which often preclude the financial capability of individual companies to make the related investments.
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32 Multimodal Freight Transportation Within the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence Basin and Philadelphia. Unsurprisingly, the large majority of intercity traffic on GLSLB roads occurred within the region as most trucks do not travel long distances.
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Findings and Applications 33 rail and marine modes, in part because the downturn affected truck traffic more heavily than other modes. In Canada, the forecast is similar, but growth is expected to be even steadier over time.
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34 Multimodal Freight Transportation Within the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence Basin Figure 3-20. Truck tonnage by state and province in the GLSLB, 2006–2007 (Source: FHWA, Statistics Canada)
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Figure 3-22. Forecast for truck tonnage with an origin or destination in GLSLB, 2007–2020 (Source: Transportation Situation and Outlook Report 2007)
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36 Multimodal Freight Transportation Within the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence Basin have been introduced to increase operational and technical efficiencies, there has not been any major or ground-breaking change in the road transportation industry. In Chicago, one of the most congested cities in the region, open-road tolling has helped reduce delays caused by toll collection.
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Findings and Applications 37 3.3.3.7 Initiatives and Opportunities to Improve Performance The major current initiatives taking place within the GLSLB to support road transportation chiefly involve infrastructure investment and regional coordination. Under the stimulus packages, the GLSLB has already experienced a $7.2 billion influx of U.S.
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38 Multimodal Freight Transportation Within the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence Basin Efficiency and Competitiveness. The majority of air cargo rides in the belly of passenger planes, which strains the region's largest airports as their facilities must accommodate both passengers and air freight, each having different flow characteristics.
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Findings and Applications 39 Figure 3-25. Major flows by origin–destination, 2007 (Source: U.S.
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40 Multimodal Freight Transportation Within the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence Basin Figure 3-27. Trends and forecast for tonnage handled in GLSLB air network, 2004–2020 (Source: U.S.
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Findings and Applications 41 There is generally significant local resistance to airport establishment or expansion projects, often grounded in issues around expropriation, noise, pollution, and safety. Consequently, airport authorities put in place restrictive measures for passenger and cargo traffic such as curfews, noise thresholds, and over-flight trajectory modifications.
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42 Multimodal Freight Transportation Within the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence Basin airports rents, more cohesive policies are needed so as to provide a level playing field, greater competitiveness, and higher development potential. If air transportation is to grow significantly in the region, it will have to go beyond its niche markets.
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Findings and Applications 43 Figure 3-30. Stylized pipeline network and refineries in the GLSLB (bbl/d = barrels per day)
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44 Multimodal Freight Transportation Within the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence Basin As in the case for crude oil, the main pipelines originate from Alberta and the U.S. southern region.
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Findings and Applications 45 Figure 3-32. Value of trade at GLSLB pipeline border crossings, 2007 (Source: BTS North American Transborder Freight Data)
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46 Multimodal Freight Transportation Within the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence Basin Figure 3-34. Forecast for pipeline tonnage with an origin or destination in GLSLB, 2007–2020 (Source: U.S.
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Findings and Applications 47 40 years old, while nearly half (49%) of transmission pipelines in GLSLB are 40 years old and over.
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48 Multimodal Freight Transportation Within the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence Basin of freight, solids, bulk, and food products as a possibility for this type of facility. Thus, the development potential of the pipeline system is quite limited in the GLSLB region, since energy and petroleum industries may actually be the only real sectors targeted.
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Findings and Applications 49 The perspective of the freight (shippers) is arguably most salient in assessing the performance of multimodal transportation.
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50 Multimodal Freight Transportation Within the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence Basin 3.4.2.1 Coal Coal, one of the most significant single commodities transported by volume in the GLSLB, is largely captive to its transport chain, moving between three coal-producing regions (largely outside the GLSLB) to regional coal-fired power plants in the GLSLB, and to a lesser extent regional industries.
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Mode Million tons % (weight) $ per ton % (value)
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Figure 3-41. Key supply chains: automotive and machinery manufacturing (Source: USACE, Statistics Canada)
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Findings and Applications 53 Given the importance of parts as inputs into the automotive manufacturing process, reliability is arguably the most significant driver and determinant of freight transportation performance for automotive supply chains in the GLSLB. The automotive industry relies mainly on truck for the movement of parts within the region and intermodal rail/truck for the import of parts.
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Figure 3-42. Key supply chains: intermodal (Source: Surface Transportation Board, Statistics Canada, Association of American Port Authorities)
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Findings and Applications 55 multimodal freight transportation system as a whole for a number of reasons. First, freight transportation performance must be assessed according to the respective supply-chain needs and goals of different commodities (e.g., coal vs.
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56 Multimodal Freight Transportation Within the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence Basin are often commodity supply-chain specific, as are the opportunities and initiatives to promote improved performance. 3.4.4 Assessing Performance of the GLSLB Multimodal Freight Transportation System Unfortunately, good data on transport-chain transit times, costs, and reliability in the GLSLB is limited or nonexistent in the public domain (although freight forwarders, shippers, and supply-chain operators would be expected to track some of this data, it is generally deemed commercially sensitive and not made public)
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Findings and Applications 57 tial work is being done to assess transport-chain transit time, cost, and reliability metrics (albeit not specifically related to the GLSLB) , although for the most part this is still in its infancy.
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58 Multimodal Freight Transportation Within the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence Basin "Chicago's congestion is a big issue: there are backups at rail yards and intermodal connectors are in poor condition. The result is time lost, significant environmental impact, higher trucking fleet size and a need for more drivers." Capacity constraints around Chicago and other major urban centers in the GLSLB are affecting transit time, cost, and reliability of transport chains, all which limit regional competitiveness.
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Findings and Applications 59 Ironically, it was noted by one stakeholder that "Chicago is such a major intermodal hub that it dampens the impetus to create a facility that might compete." This could in effect help alleviate some of the pressures on the Chicago region to the benefit of regional supply chains. Efforts to bypass Chicago are being spearheaded in Indianapolis, Kansas City, Memphis, and along the Meridian Speedway through Mississippi.
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60 Multimodal Freight Transportation Within the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence Basin From a modal standpoint, shippers select modes that are best suited to the nature of their cargo and supply-chain needs, weighing a tradeoff between cost, transit time, and reliability. Generally, the marine mode offers the lowest per ton-mile cost, followed by rail and truck (not taking into account handling costs)
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Findings and Applications 61 though this data is seldom made public for reasons of commercial sensitivity. Other data on logistics costs and transit times is known to large freight forwarders and shippers, although again, this data is seldom made public.
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62 Multimodal Freight Transportation Within the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence Basin transportation system." Port community systems are increasingly mitigating this issue, but it remains an important issue for overall multimodal transport-chain performance due to the high degree of industry fragmentation and the competitive nature of the business. As a result of these and similar modal integration issues, many felt it was difficult to optimize or plan for performance improvements to the multimodal freight transportation in the GLSLB.
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Findings and Applications 63 U.S. agencies are not involved in this planning process (other than as stakeholders)
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64 Multimodal Freight Transportation Within the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence Basin traffic from congested roads to waterways with sufficient capacity)
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Findings and Applications 65 and education of the role and importance of multimodal freight systems and barriers to their performance. 3.5.6 Labor The current workforce in the transportation sector in the GLSLB, and indeed elsewhere in North America, is aging.
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66 Multimodal Freight Transportation Within the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence Basin In terms of a way forward, several stakeholders have noted a need for a systematic and comprehensive regional and even national freight transportation plan that is multimodal and multijurisdictional in nature. One stakeholder stressed the need to address other negative performance issues (externalities)
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Findings and Applications 67 3.6.2 Freight Transportation Data Data remains a major limitation for regional freight planning in the GLSLB, particularly freight transportation performance data. The availability of Freight Analysis Framework (FAF)
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68 Multimodal Freight Transportation Within the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence Basin The government of Canada's Continental Gateway initiative (http://www.continentalgateway.ca) , for instance, has been proving to be a useful model for improving regional freight transportation in the GLSLB, north of the border.
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Findings and Applications 69 In contrast, one organization, representing shippers and carriers, noted that, "Public policy people care about modal shift. Shippers don't," underscoring the point that shippers are most concerned with some balance of transit time, cost, and reliability, not the mode used, per se.
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70 Multimodal Freight Transportation Within the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence Basin 3.6.5 Funding As noted, there is no pan-regional funding mechanism dedicated to multimodal freight transportation projects in the GLSLB specifically. In the U.S., the recent TIGER grant process did solicit freight transportation projects, which were evaluated against national transportation priorities.
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Findings and Applications 71 Other entities, including the Southern Ontario Gateway Council, are also promoting awareness and education around the importance and need for regional freight transportation planning in the GLSLB. 3.7 Framework for Multimodal Freight Planning in the GLSLB and Beyond The foregoing analysis and findings provide some guidance on opportunities to improve the planning process vis-à-vis the multimodal freight transportation system in the GLSLB and initiatives to improve its performance.
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72 Multimodal Freight Transportation Within the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence Basin metrics on the performance of the regional multimodal freight transportation system in the GLSLB. This is in part due to limitations in data.
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Findings and Applications 73 "The private sector (shippers) is interested in a national network which performs seamlessly." "Maybe the biggest issue for National System is that carriers have no borders." "We need a national freight policy AND we need a continental one, a continental transportation strategy.
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74 Multimodal Freight Transportation Within the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence Basin and shared by all actors involved in freight transportation planning and operations. Several stakeholders consulted concurred.
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Findings and Applications 75 For instance, to guide its infrastructure priorities and related investment decisions, Transport Canada has developed a National Policy Framework for Strategic Gateways and Trade Corridors consisting of "five lenses."10 A similar strategic framework could be used to guide initiatives to improve the performance of the multimodal freight transportation system in the GLSLB, although a national, or even continental, policy would likely be a better means of planning and improving freight transportation performance in North America. Funding.
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76 Multimodal Freight Transportation Within the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence Basin The freight planning framework presented is unlikely to be realistic in the short term, but may set useful goalposts that could guide incremental improvement to the regional multimodal freight transportation system planning process going forward. As one of the stakeholders put it: "There is no revolutionary change.
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Findings and Applications 77 supply-chain–specific performance matters is particularly needed to inform a coordinated approach to strategic policy and investment decisions that are in line with regional, national, and continental transportation policy objectives. Further, greater input is needed in future research on and from the users of the regional multimodal freight transportation system, including shippers and carriers.
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