WOW DID YOU SEE THIS? DOT Plan’s Modal Bias Overlooks America’s Needs

WOW DID YOU SEE THIS? I ONLY WOUNDER WHAT THEY WILL DO NEXT TO THE TRUCKING SIDE OF TRANSPORTATION


DOT Plan’s Modal Bias Overlooks America’s Needs
Our nation’s highway system fueled “unprecedented economic prosperity and individual mobility,” according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s draft Strategic Plan for 2010-2015. However, instead of furthering our economic prosperity and mobility through operational improvements on our nation’s highways, the Administration plans to avoid highway transportation in favor of other modes.

The first page of the plan states that "Within its authorities, DOT will seek to strike an optimal balance between maximizing the diversion of freight traffic from less environmentally beneficial and energy-saving modes to rail, protecting the statutorily established rights of and safeguards for shippers, and assuring that the regulatory framework for railroads enables the industry to maintain their systems at the highest level of safety and continue to earn sufficient revenue to keep investing for safety and adding capacity."

The movement of goods by railroad is not a substitute for moving freight on our nation’s highway system. The open preference toward railroads comes with a great price, both in shipping costs to American consumers, and in federal funds doled out to ensure railroads maintain their profitability.

Former U.S. Transportation Secretary Jim Burnley, recently said, “As best I can translate it, DOT will continue its anti-trucking campaign (the first time in its history it has waged war on a particular mode of transportation), pay lip service to shippers, tilt the playing field at the STB, insist on the installation of Positive Train Control (PTC) systems and continue its recent huge infusion of federal dollars into freight rail capital accounts.”

The railroads continue campaigning for tens of billions of dollars in investment tax credits because the reduction of greenhouse gases poses a serious threat to their operations, said Burnley. Coal accounts for more than 40 percent of annual freight tonnage carried by railroad and “railroads strongly support “clean” coal. But if that somehow doesn’t work out, and the coal industry gets thrown under the bus, then the rails are demanding an ‘insurance policy,’” Burnley said.

Association of American Railroads President and CEO Ed Hamberger addressed the uncertain future of railroads May 25 in testimony to a Congressional Coal Caucus. “The success of railroads and coal are indelibly linked,” Hamberger said. “If coal use falls, it could result in billions of dollars in rail assets being left without any value or greatly reduced value.”

While lawmakers continue debating the future of American energy, the handful of Class I railroads continue building a massive federally subsidized insurance policy to protect against the possible fall of coal. “Does the DOT really want to continue down the path of treating Class I’s as ‘too big to fail,’ at the very time the Obama Administration and Congress are declaring ‘never again’ as to banking industry and Wall Street bailouts,” Burnley said.

Ignoring market forces driving shippers’ modal decisions undermines American businesses, our nation’s supply chain and the success of our economy. If in fact the Administration truly believes that we must create a transportation system that puts the needs of the American people and their communities first -- as stated on the first page of their Strategic Plan -- then they must remove personal bias and craft a plan that allows our nation’s market to determine modal winners and losers.


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