PUBLIC INFORMATION MEETING MINUTES

A discussion of the NYMTC Regional Freight Plan Project was the major feature of the December 12th meeting of the Freight Transportation Working Group, which was its first meeting since the events of September 11th.  The purpose of the discussion was to report to freight stakeholders in the New York metropolitan area the findings of the first five tasks of the Freight Plan Project and to solicit feedback on proposed recommendations for strategies to improve the efficiency of goods movement in the region.  An invitation to the meeting was transmitted by either e-mail or fax to approximately 850 industry, government and civic leaders who are concerned with freight movement in the tri-state area.  They also received a summary of the Task 5 Report: Preliminary Identification of Improvements and Solutions, and were notified that the full report could be downloaded from the Project website.  Comments were requested to be submitted by December 31st.  The web address is http://webservices.camsys.com/nymtcfreight.

FTWG UPDATE

After a reaffirmation of FTWG’s purpose in the aftermath of September 11th, Gerry Bogacz, Planning Group Director of NYMTC, asked for updates on activities of FTWG members. Briefly, without attribution, the following items were reported:

• Truck volumes have decreased 1-2% at Port Authority of NY & NJ crossings.

• Howland Hook and Arlington Yards are being rehabilitated as rail terminals. Rail operators attribute their setting tonnage records each week (up 12% from last year) to pent-up demand for rail.

• NYC DOT has issued a Truck Route Study Request For Proposals;,

• NYMTC is recreating the Hub-Bound data that are normally collected by NYMTC each October, but were not assembled this year due to 9-11.

• Recent events brought out the value of redundancy in the freight system, such as cross-harbor barges.

• Truck weigh stations have been installed at the Triborough, Throgs Neck and Whitestone Bridges.

• Installation of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) is underway in the I-95 Corridor.

• The Norfolk Southern Triple Crown intermodal operation was moved to Bethlehem PA from New Jersey.

MAJOR THEMES OF THE TASK 5 REPORT

Marc Cutler, Cambridge Systematic’s Project Manager for the Regional Freight Plan Project, presented an overview of the findings and the draft recommendations. He asked for guidance on ways to group and package strategies into four or five logical alternatives to be presented at a Regional Freight Forum next year.

Strategies are designed to:

• Enhance connections between modal networks to improve the overall system efficiency

• Balance the needs of passenger and freight transportation.

• Remove bottlenecks in the systems.

• Expand access to key regional demand centers.

• Increase options for all users.

Referring to the attached summary tables, Mr. Cutler characterized the three major categories of strategies that evolved in response to the adopted project performance measures and to the deficiencies in the regional freight network that have been identified in prior tasks:

• Infrastructure projects-Capital intensive structural changes to facilities, which are organized by major functional corridors for trucks and rail. Maps show that while the strategies tend to be corridor-specific, there is a need to consider how actions in one corridor affect another.

• Policy strategies-Widely applicable changes like expanding truck access to other types of roads, off-peak use of HOV lanes, pricing measures for roads; actions to increase east-of-Hudson rail.

• Operational improvements and/or application of technology-Measures such as ITS that are also broadly applicable throughout the freight network.

Economic development issues that underlie all strategies include: regional dependence on a single mode; the high cost of shipping into the region, preservation of land for transport-supportive uses, and solid waste disposal.

Mr. Cutler noted that although all modes are addressed in the project, air and water-borne transport have been narrowed to landside access to air and marine ports, which leads to projects that are intermodal in nature. Mr. Bogacz emphasized that the NYMTC Regional Freight Plan Project is being built on platforms of data and analysis beyond the study, e.g., the Cross Harbor Tunnel EIS and the Comprehensive Port Improvement Plan.

Issues raised at the meeting by freight stakeholder representatives follow.

Emphasis of Project

• Need to consider not just goods delivery efficiency, but community impacts of proposed measures. (George Haikalis, Institute for Rational Urban Mobility.)

• Recent dramatic reduction of consumption suggests that exponential growth of consumption, which is the underlying premise of the Study forecasts, is not inevitable. (Haikalis.)

• Need to involve public in screening of strategies so solutions for some don’t become problems for others. (Michael Rossmy, Office of the Brooklyn Borough President).

• Best to use the upcoming regional forum for public input. (Nancy Wright, NYCDOT).

Assessment issues:

• Consider effects of corridor strategies on parallel roads, not just on adjacent corridors. (Goodman.)

• In reallocating capacity between passenger cars and trucks, consider that heretofore unthinkable peak hour restrictions are achieving a 20% reduction of traffic entering the CBD. (Haikalis.)

• Most goods come from areas too near to make anything but truck practical. (Paul Kazan, Target Interstate Trucking.)A cross-harbor rail tunnel will have limited impact (only 75 fewer trucks on GW and V-N bridges in the peak hour.) Rail transfer will increase the problem of Less than Truck Load (LTL). (Three commentors.)

• Agency response:

• EDC said that the Cross Harbor study emphasis is on reducing daily regional truck VMT; not numbers of trucks. (Marc Cutler pointed out that it is necessary to look beyond the peak hour impact since truckers typically try to avoid it anyway.)

• Connecticut DOT feels there is a need to shift mode from truck dominance as I-95 is at capacity and freight growth inevitable,

• North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority described more than a half-dozen projects that NJDOT is doing, based on premise that lots of synapses improve a system.

• NYSDOT is issuing an RFP for Design/EIS of an Intermodal freight facility at Pilgrim State Hospital that is expected to be operational by 2006, full TOFC/COFC by 2010.

Factors to take into account in formulating regional freight strategy:

• Internet and mail order are fundamentally changing the nature of goods delivery. (Cafiero).

• LTL is the major problem, it is getting worse and a rail tunnel would increase it. It is the bane of congestion management. (Three commentors.)

• LTL is being addressed in Paris, Barcelona, Union County, NJ by freight villages. In transfer from big trucks to little trucks, centers use advanced sorting and loading systems. Added bonus is shared security that individual firms could not afford. (Roberta Weisbrod and other commentors.)

• Water-borne transport, as urged by the US Secretary of Transportation, should include discussion of barge transport and landside facilities. (Weisbrod)

• The region’s goods balance in which imported goods leave region as trash must be a major focus of study. Rail-based sludge export provides a model for municipal solid waste transport, albeit, MSW does not have the density or homogeneity that makes rail transport of sludge practical. (Two commentors.)

• Effect of passenger vehicle congestion and LTL (typical of most deliveries into city) on economic development. Deliveries cost 65 cents/mi from NYC to Chicago; $2/mi Chicago to NY. (Kazan.)

Scenario Development:

Gerry Bogacz pressed the FTWG and others in attendance to provide advice on selecting scenarios for decision-makers. The response follows:

• Congressman Nadler’s representative, Laura Friedman, said it is essential that, in spite of the divergent interests involved in FTWG, projects be prioritized.

• Jim Tripp, speaking for the Tri-State Transportation Campaign and Environmental Defense, suggested that the study depict future conditions as if the region did nothing to deal with an anticipated 2-4% increase in truck trips, assume no increase highway capacity, and then determine the level of mobility desired and the rail strategy needed to achieve the goal.

• Daniel Jacobs of the Office of the Borough President of Staten Island, proposed examining “cascading” series of alternatives for different venues (intra-city, intra region, inter-region and circumferential). Each series, beginning with Policy strategies, then adding Operation measures and finally, Infrastructure improvements, could be evaluated incrementally to discern the relative benefits of each step, as well as their cumulative effects.

• Leon Goodman of The Parsons Transportation Group asserted that a combination of all strategies is needed for each mode and corridor.

Howard Mann and Marc Cutler will consider the advice received at the meeting and on the website in formulating the final report: Assessment of Solutions and Recommendations (Task 6). The results will be presented at the Freight Forum, which is scheduled for February. The next FTWG meeting is scheduled for January 31st at 1:30 pm. Notices will be sent.

Norma Hessic, Director of Public Affairs for NYMTC, announced that the Regional Freight Forum will occur on February 13th

The meeting was adjourned at 3:30 p.m.

Attachments

• Summary of Task 5 Report

• List of Attendees

  • Louis G. Albano, DC37 (retired)

  • Cheryl D'Alessio, Edwards & Kelcey/ Team

  • Vaughn A. Arnold, NYC Dept. of Sanitation

  • Richard Backlund, FHWA

  • Jerry Bogacz, NYMTC

  • Mike  Brimmel, CSX

  • Alex Brown, Cambridge Systematics/Team

  • George Bulow, Interactive International Inc.

  • Charle Cafiero, Canal West Coalition

  • Noah Caplin, Edwards & Kelcey/Team

  • David Carlson, EPA

  • Alice Cheng, EDC

  • Marisa Clark, NYSDOT MO

  • Rick Cranford, Norfolk Southern

  • Marc Cutler, Cambridge Systematics/Team

  • Walter Czwartacky, NYC Dept. of Sanitation

  • Steven Daleo, LIRR

  • Jack Dean, MTA

  • Michael P. Donahue, NYSDOT

  • Emilio Felix, NYC Dept. of City Planning

  • Edgar Freund, Committee for Environmentally Sound Development

  • Laura Friedman, Office of Congressman Nadler

  • Robert Gaiser, Nassau County

  • Bill Gallagher, EOHTF- New York Shipyard Corporation

  • Jerry Gluck, Urbitran

  • Leon Goodman, Parsons Transportation Group

  • Robert Gottheim, Office of Congressman Nadler

  • John Culpepper, Lower Washington Heights Civic Assn.

  • George Haikalis, IRUM

  • Glen Hayden, Parsons Brinckerhoff

  • Christopher Haynes, Urbitran

  • Norma Hessic, NYMTC

  • Roger Herz, Time

  • John Hummer, NJTPA

  • Brad Hoylman, NYC Partnership

  • Daniel Jacobs, Staten Island Borough President’s Office

  • Paul Kazan, Target Interstate Trucking

  • Gretchen Kunka, NYMTC Staff

  • Toby Kizner, Edwards & Kelcey/ Team

  • Carolyn Konheim, Konheim & Ketcham/ Team

  • Fred  Krebs, New York & Atlantic Railway

  • Mark Vogl, NYS Senator Trunzo

  • Jim Larsen, PANYNJ

  • Bill Loane, Amtrak

  • Larry Malsam, NYCTCC

  • Jay McLaughlin, Waste Management

  • Ben Miller, Community Cartography

  • Alreal Movies, Baruch

  • Rick Muller, Manhattan Borough President's Office

  • Mark Nachbar, Sen. Ceasar Trunzo

  • Rian Nemeroff, HRRC

  • Bill Phillips, Morristown & Erie Railroad

  • John Powers, NJDOT

  • Michael Rossmy, Brooklyn Borough President’s Office

  • Omar Rodriguez, NYCEDC

  • Ken Rydzewski, LIRR

  • Tom Schultz, NYMTC

  • David Stein, NYCDOT

  • Rich Stoecker, SWRPA

  • Victor Teglasi, NYSDOT

  • Jim Tripp, Environmental Defense

  • Ashley Tyrell, NYSDOT

  • Wayne Ugolik, NYSDOT- Region 10

  • John Valengavich, Conn DOT

  • Greg Waidley, FHWA NY Division

  • Roberta Weisbrod, Institute for Sustainable Ports

  • Jesse Weissman, NY Atlantic Railway Co

  • Rich Wisneski, NJ Transit

  • Paul Wolfrom, DMJM

  • Nancy Wright, NYCDOT