Horizon Lines’ Raymond backs funding for short sea shipping

Horizon Lines’ Raymond backs funding for short sea shipping    Calling short sea shipping a means to “revitalize American maritime and shipbuilding industries,” Charles (Chuck) Raymond, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Horizon Lines, a U.S.-flag ocean carrier, said U.S. freight demand will swamp any increase in highway or rail capacity.
   Building more highways would cost $32 million a mile and rail trade is about $1 million a mile, not including land costs, Raymond noted. “Clearly, this will overwhelm any practical increase in highway or rail in terms of time, financial and environmental resources,” he told a short-sea shipping conference on Hilton Head Island, S.C.
   Raymond called for the creation of a loan guarantee plan akin to the U.S. Maritime Administration’s Title XI program to provide start-up services for short sea shipping initiatives in the U.S
   “The European Union has been aggressively using short-sea shipping as a competitive part of its transportation network for over 10 years,” Raymond explained.
   In Europe, “more than 44 percent of all freight movements are waterborne. Officials have placed short-sea shipping, in coordination with rail and highway modes, at their top of their transportation agendas to ease their own surface congestion,” he said.