NIT League’s Ficker calls for national freight mobility strategy

NIT LeagueÆs Ficker calls for national freight mobility strategy    The United States is crying out for a new freight transportation paradigm, and part of the new thinking should include spreading some of the infrastructure burden to shippers because carriers cannot afford to expand capacity on their own, said John Ficker, president of the National Industrial Transportation League, in a recent speech.
   Ficker said there is a critical need to develop rail intermodal service to include short-haul movements that heretofore have been cost-prohibitive for railroads to offer. As fuel costs, driver shortages and highway congestion constrain trucking capacity, railroads need to consider partnerships with local governments to own, manage and maintain intermodal ramps near major metropolitan areas to make moves of 250 miles or less possible, Ficker's remarks were made in a speech to the I-95 Corridor Coalition meeting in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., on Dec. 13. The I-95 Corridor Coalition is an alliance of state transportation agencies and toll authorities along the East Coast that work together to improve transportation safety and efficiency.
   Ficker also proposed that railroads could divest themselves of railcars and concentrate on operating their networks, as some railroads have already started to do with their trailers and containers.
   A national freight transportation policy should also take a hard look at short-sea shipping to alleviate road congestion.
   “This will require the lifting of old and entrenched legislation — the Jones Act — to ever make it economically feasible, but it could work. … I am not suggesting that we abandon this legislation, but look at in light of today’s reality, not that of its passage in the early 20th century,” he said.
   The Jones Act reserves domestic water-borne transportation to U.S.-flagged vessel interest.