National Transportation System Initiative: Supplementary Information on Process and Criteria

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Office of the Secretary

National Transportation System Initiative: Supplementary

Information on Process and Criteria

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, DOT.

ACTION: Request for comments.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The Department of Transportation seeks comments on the process

and criteria discussion papers for developing a National Transportation

System (NTS). The information will be used to develop the Department's

proposed criteria and process for identifying the National

Transportation System.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before September 30, 1994, to be

fully considered in reviewing the proposed approach for conducting the

Department's NTS initiative.

ADDRESSES: Three copies of comments for the public docket on the NTS

should be sent to: Office of the Secretary, Documentary Services

Division C-55, Attn: NTS Public Docket #49617, Room 4107, 400 Seventh

Street SW., Washington, D.C. 20590.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Questions on the NTS initiative can

also be directed to the Departmental Offices designated as leads for

the NTS outreach and planning initiatives:

Mr. Michael P. Huerta,

Associate Deputy Secretary,

Room 10200, 400 Seventh Street SW., Washington, D.C. 20590, Ph: (202)

366-5781

Mr. Stephen Palmer, Assistant Secretary for Governmental Affairs, Room

10408, 400 Seventh Street SW., Washington, D.C. 20590, Ph: (202) 366-

4573

Mr. Frank Kruesi, Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy, Room

10228, 400 Seventh Street SW., Washington, D.C. 20590, Ph: (202) 366-

4450.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Transportation programs and administrative

structures, combined with current shortcomings of information and

analytic tools, can result in transportation decisions being made that

do not meet national transportation needs effectively and efficiently.

The NTS will delineate the most important elements of the

transportation system in terms of their collective contribution to

those national objectives in which transportation plays an important

role--economic strength, environmental and resource conservation,

community vitality and social welfare. It will include components from

aviation, highways (initially, the National Highway System, as defined

by Congress), railroads, ports and waterways, pipelines, and public

transportation.

The NTS outreach program seeks to involve private citizens, the

business community, Congress, State and local officials, and interest

groups to discuss all aspects of the NTS. These outreach activities

will seek feedback on the process and criteria through which the

initial NTS can be identified.

Notice laying out the basic concept and framework for the NTS was

published in the Federal Register on June 23, 1994. The following text

builds upon and supplements that Notice with respect to the procedures

to be followed and criteria to be used to identify the initial NTS. The

August 22 deadline for docket comments on the NTS preliminary concept

paper has been extended to September 30 to enable the Department to

consider interrelated comments arising from the preliminary criteria

and process papers.

Part I. Process of System Identification

Introduction

The development of the National Transportation System is intended

to be a cooperative effort of the U.S. Department of Transportation,

State and local agencies, and the private sector. This paper outlines

the Department's preliminary thinking about the process to be used for

identifying the elements of the National Transportation System. Its

purpose is to provide an early indication of the roles and

responsibilities of the various groups and to solicit comments about

the process. A related brochure, ``The National Transportation System:

A Framework for Strategic Transportation Development,'' describes the

concept of the National Transportation System, its purpose and use.

Development of Criteria

The U.S. Department of Transportation is exploring various possible

criteria for the selection of elements to be included in the National

Transportation System. Based on the comments of outreach participants,

the U.S. Department of Transportation will refine the process and

develop a preliminary set of criteria. Comments responding to the

preliminary criteria, as published, will be considered in the

development of final criteria.

The criteria will be a set of measures and guidelines for

identifying whether a facility or other transportation element should

be included in the National Transportation System. All modes of

passenger and freight transportation will be covered in the criteria.

Criteria will also include any other applicable requirements, such as

inclusion in State and/or metropolitan transportation plans and

improvement programs.

Preliminary Identification of the National Transportation System

The U.S. Department of Transportation will use the final criteria

to make a preliminary selection of the transportation elements to be

included in the National Transportation System. This will generally be

accomplished using information the Department already has available. In

some cases, such as urban transit, the preliminary identification of

facilities and/or services to be included in the National

Transportation System may need to be made in consultation with State

and local agencies.

The criteria and results of this preliminary identification process

will be distributed in January 1995 to State and local agencies,

private service providers, and trade associations. Information to be

provided will include a physical description of each element and the

travel activity associated with that element.

Private providers, the States, and local agencies working through

the States, will be asked to comment on the elements selected and

whether any additions or deletions should be made. Of particular

interest will be additions to the initial system which address criteria

such as connectivity, national coverage, and international trade. In

addition, agencies will be requested to correct any inaccuracies and

provide additional data on the physical features of the transportation

elements, travel activity, and the conditions and performance of the

element. The comment period will be 90 days.

Final Identification of the National Transportation System

The U.S. Department of Transportation will analyze and evaluate the

information that is submitted by State and local agencies and private

providers. Based on this analysis, modifications will be made to the

preliminary National Transportation System selections, in consultation

with the States, local agencies and private sector. In addition, the

data will be used to build a more complete and accurate database

describing the system, its use and performance. The Department will

undertake discussions to try to resolve any differences between the

transportation elements identified by the Department and the

submissions.

Preparation of Maps and Final Report

The initial National Transportation System will be illustrated in a

series of maps that will display all elements of the system. The maps

will be prepared from a database developed by the U.S. Department of

Transportation and supplemented by the submissions of the State and

local agencies and private providers. The database will be made

available in digital format for use in conjunction with geographic

information systems (GIS) software. The maps will be published in both

paper form and on CD-ROM.

The maps and the report accompanying them will be completed by

September 1995 and will contain information on the physical

description, usage, and, to the extent possible, condition and

performance of the system. It will also contain recommendations on

Federal policies and action related to the system.

In addition, the National Transportation System process will

provide the basis for the development of legislative proposals designed

to promote and implement an integrated, intermodal transportation

system.

Updating the National Transportation System

The initial National Transportation System process is to be

completed towards the end of 1995. This will be the first step in a

continuing effort. The National Transportation System is intended to

serve as a tool to develop national transportation policy and

legislation and, therefore, it is essential that it be kept current and

relevant. Thus, the initial National Transportation System will evolve

to reflect changes in demographics, economic conditions, system

performance, technology, and social and environmental impacts. In later

stages, the system will be updated, additional information on

conditions and performance will be included, and new analytical

capabilities will be developed.

Part II. Criteria for Identifying the NTS

This paper sets forth potential methodologies for the

identification and selection of facilities to constitute the National

Transportation System (NTS). With that objective, we are examining

various approaches to measuring systematically the impact of airports,

highways, rail lines, transit systems, waterways, ports, and pipelines.

This paper should not be construed to represent decisions on

criteria for identifying the NTS. Rather, it is intended to generate

discussion on what the criteria should be. We expect to refine and

revise the NTS inclusion criteria based on the information and insight

we gain from NTS public meetings, written comments, and the on-going

multimodal planning process established by ISTEA. We welcome comments

and suggestions from State and local officials, the transportation

industry, and the public at large on every aspect.

The NTS is intended to allow the development of transportation

planning, program management and investment strategies which will

enhance our transportation system to move people and goods more

effectively and efficiently, thereby advancing our economic,

environmental and social goals. We believe that the NTS will provide us

with an integrated system perspective that identifies the most

strategic and effective uses of the resources available for

transportation investment. Because we are always working with scarce

resources, it is particularly important that we employ the kind of

careful targeting of investments which the NTS can help us accomplish.

Since some familiarity with the broader context of the NTS is presumed,

this paper should be read and considered in concert with the more

general brochure describing the NTS.

The identification process will take place in at least two phases.

The first step will be to identify physical facilities for inclusion in

the initial NTS. In this phase, we will focus in large part on service-

level information. Service measures provide direct evidence, though by

no means the only evidence, of whether particular facilities play a

special national role. One of the major purposes of the NTS is to

develop better information about how various transportation components

function as part of the total system. Having initially identified the

NTS, we plan to build upon that structure by collecting better

information on how the system functions. That information will be used

to analyze and modify the initial NTS.

General Framework

Workable selection criteria for the NTS are needed for two reasons.

One is purely practical. It just isn't feasible to catalogue and

include every transportation facility nationwide in the data bases and

system models which will become part of the NTS. If we include too

much, the NTS will be expensive to map and unwieldy to use; if we

include too little, we may miss significant interconnections and lose

sight of important information. In attempting to achieve the right

balance, we are seeking the advice of the transportation community and

its users. Second, such criteria are required to ensure that the NTS is

truly national in nature. The focus should be on which transportation

facilities and outputs are most essential to achieving national

objectives. Transportation facilities at once function as components of

multiple ``systems''--local, regional and national. State and local

planning entities are engaged in identifying transportation facilities

which are essential at the State and local levels. These facilities,

central to achieving economic, social and mobility goals, will require

continued investment by all levels of government and the private

sector. Some of these will be a part of the NTS, but others may not be

included in the NTS because they are not of sufficient national

significance.

Selecting Criteria

Activity Measures

There are several ways to approach the task of defining nationally

significant facilities. One option would be to designate transportation

facilities as part of the NTS primarily on the basis of the volume of

traffic they handle--for example, passengers or freight tonnage carried

on a transit or rail system, vehicles using a highway, or barrels of

crude oil transported by a given pipeline. Such ``activity level''

criteria have some advantages:

availability: information on traffic volume is widely

available.

measurability: given data and modeling limitations, usage

is at least a uniform yardstick.

significance: the volume of use is a reasonably accurate

indicator of the direct economic impact of a given facility--again,

given data limitations.

Functional Factors

Activity measures don't tell the whole story, however. Some

transportation facilities may provide critical links between modes or

regions, essential services in terms of defense or emergency readiness,

or other important economic, environmental, safety or social benefits

that are not reflected in a simple traffic count. Clearly, these

considerations need to be taken into account in identifying the NTS.

What is the best way to incorporate these various factors?

The social role of transportation facilities might properly be

reflected in a variety of criteria for inclusion. One such approach

would be to give special consideration to facilities and routes serving

areas where the population has comparatively limited access to

automobiles, is relatively immobile, or includes a higher proportion of

seniors or the disabled. Safety and environmental considerations might

weigh in favor of modes or facilities whose use results in fewer

accidents or which yield less pollution--which both have attendant

social and economic costs.

In addition to traffic volume, which as indicated above, is an

important measure of economic impact and, generally, of a facility's

environmental effects, we suggest that defense and emergency

preparedness, and system linkage across modes or across regions are

factors which can be identified and should be weighed. We may find

workable proxies for meeting social objectives such as safety, mobility

and accessibility as well. There may be ways to approximate the

connectivity function, for example, by identifying the percentage of

population or economic activity within a given distance or travel time

to a facility.

Some non-volume criteria will affect the composition of the initial

NTS: for example, border crossings and important ports of entry may be

included on the basis of their role in international trade. This

process will accelerate as the NTS grows. With experience and

additional data, we hope to be able to incorporate measures of more

complex and subtle factors reflecting social and community viability.

We welcome suggestions on ways to assess these factors, and on ways to

quantify any other factors that commenters believe should be taken into

consideration in defining the elements of the NTS.

Temporal Considerations

There is at least one other difficult aspect of the criteria

question: how should the NTS deal with the future, i.e., with

anticipated or planned facilities or actions? The NTS is intended to be

forward-looking: that is, it should help us determine what actions need

to be taken to make transportation function better. Thus, the NTS needs

to be able to accommodate prospectively new additions to the system. In

some instances these may involve technologies--for example, high speed

rail and intelligent vehicle highway systems--that are not yet

operational.

The process needs to be realistic, however. The NTS cannot

incorporate every idea for a transportation improvement, regardless of

the likelihood that it would ever be built or implemented. In light of

this, how do we select system additions that are ``real,'' in the sense

of having an acceptable likelihood of implementation? Would it be

useful to specify a planning horizon for the NTS? Should existing and

planned facilities be treated as separable parts of the NTS?

There may be legislative, planning or funding milestones or

thresholds that will help address these questions. For example, we are

considering a requirement that an unbuilt facility be a part of a State

Transportation Improvement Program to be eligible for inclusion in the

NTS. How would anticipated private sector improvements be treated?

Setting Intermodal NTS Criteria

One of the major goals of the NTS is to promote efficient and

effective intermodal transportation. At present, however, it is

difficult to use identical criteria to evaluate facilities across

modes.

In large part, this is attributable to data limitations. Ideally,

the criteria would measure transportation impacts on a variety of

important objectives without regard to mode. Realistically, we do not

have good measures of the direct regional or national impact of

transportation on many economic, environmental and social goals, and

those that we do have are modally-based.

Under the leadership of the Bureau of Transportation Statistics,

the Department has begun to plan and to implement improved data

collection. Efforts are under way to collect multimodal national and

interregional freight and passenger data. The NTS will help spur and

guide continued efforts in this direction and the data will be helpful

in refining the NTS.

Notwithstanding these constraints, NTS criteria need to have some

internal consistency if the NTS is to become a productive analytical

tool and not just an inventory of unrelated parts. All components of

the NTS, urban or rural, public or private, should have a clear,

systematic relationship to the overall national transportation network

and make a significant contribution to meeting the nation's

transportation needs. In the examples that follow, we have attempted to

achieve some rough comparability in terms of activity data, but these

need to be further refined to reflect economic impact. To do this, it

would be useful to have the passenger and freight flow data from the

planned surveys mentioned earlier. With this data, we could assess the

distribution and value of passenger and freight flows, but the survey

data will not be available in time for the initial identification of

the NTS. In the interim, we plan to examine the feasibility of using

available transportation expenditure, commodity and activity data to

approximate better the impact on the economy of various transportation

facilities. Are there other data which could be used to achieve more

meaningful intermodal consistency?

In light of data limitations and unresolved questions about

methodologies for recognizing non-volume social factors, our initial

approach to criteria focuses on volume measures. But how can we best

select a volume threshold for inclusion in the NTS?

Analysts seeking to select proper thresholds often look for

natural, real-world ``break-points'' in the data, for example, the

point along the traffic activity curve where traffic begins to drop off

more sharply. Applying that kind of general rule across the modes

facilitates identification of the most heavily used facilities in each

mode, notwithstanding the differences among their traffic patterns.

(Some modes have more concentrated traffic patterns, while others are

more dispersed; no two are identical.) Sometimes there are several

possible break-points, and we will need to decide how much of each

system to include in the NTS.

In some cases, workable selection guidelines may already exist. For

example, the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991

(ISTEA) states that ``the National Intermodal Transportation System

shall include a National Highway System . . .'' Thus, the National

Highway System, now before Congress for final approval, would properly

comprise the highway portion of the initial NTS network.

It may also be useful to consider a staged selection process. For

example, the NTS could be defined to include, first, transportation

systems Congress has designated as having national importance; second,

the major facilities that handle a substantial proportion of the

traffic in each mode, as measured by a variety of pertinent activity

statistics; and third, other facilities that can be shown to have

significant, measurable social or economic impacts--e.g., on

environmental quality, safety, defense and emergency readiness,

national system linkage, or other important national objectives.

Potential Criteria

The following examples of criteria and threshold levels for

identifying facilities for the initial NTS are offered to illustrate

how criteria might be applied. They do not represent specific options

or ranges for these values. The criteria and threshold levels applied

may be entirely different from those illustrated in the examples,

depending on the comments we receive and on further analysis.

Highways

Pending Congressional approval, the National Highway System (NHS)

will incorporate the strategic highway network, ISTEA high priority

corridors, selected principal arterials, and intermodal connectors:

approximately 159,000 miles of highway designated by Congress as having

national importance. This is about four percent of the four million

miles of public roads in the U.S. and about one-sixth of the 953,000

miles eligible for Federal aid under ISTEA. This network carries over

40 percent of the passenger vehicle miles traveled in the United

States, and 70 percent of the commercial truck miles. It includes not

only the high activity routes, but highways that are essential for

national defense and emergency preparedness, as well as connecting

routes that link the national system together, thus reflecting several

of the non-volume factors discussed above. The last phase of the

designation of the NHS will be to identify intermodal connectors. This

activity will be undertaken in concert with the NTS identification

process since the objectives of these activities are closely related.

The character of the NHS--which encompasses a relatively small number

of facilities which service a very large proportion of the traffic

(especially freight traffic), while also providing connectivity and

emergency readiness--supplies one model for consideration in the

criteria development process.

Aviation

Federal Airways

Aviation's primary system niche is in long distance and

international transportation. Navigation aids, including the air route

traffic control centers and principal navigation aids, form an

``airways'' system which is essential to the operation of aviation

service. The rationale for inclusion is underscored by the fact that

the air route traffic control centers and navigation aids which

together comprise the airways system are already Federally-operated.

Airports

This component of the aviation system presents a bigger challenge

because there are substantial variations in the amount and character of

airports' use. Air travel is highly concentrated. The top 50 airports

handle more than 80 percent of all passenger enplanements in the U.S.;

and the top 150 airports account for more than 95 percent of total

traffic. Adding airports that handle a large volume of cargo

operations, or those with a high level of unscheduled general aviation

operations, might provide a more complete picture of the air system as

a whole. How inclusive should the NTS be? Two illustrative

possibilities are:

(1) Commercial airports with more than 2.5 million passenger

enplanements per year, and cargo airports with more than 500,000 tons

of landed cargo aircraft weight: 56 airports in total. These facilities

represent less than one percent of the number of airports open to the

public in the country and about 10 percent of commercial service

airports. Together, however, they serve 81 percent of enplaned

passengers, 87 percent of landed cargo aircraft weight, and 14 percent

of general aviation itinerant operations at FAA-towered airports.

(2) Commercial airports with more than 250,000 passenger

enplanements per year (including all U.S. airports with scheduled

international service), cargo airports with more than 50,000 tons of

landed cargo aircraft weight, and FAA-towered airports with more than

100,000 general aviation itinerant operations per year: 187 airports in

total. Together, these airports account for 97 percent of total

enplaned passengers, 99 percent of landed aircraft weight at cargo

airports and 56 percent of itinerant general aviation operations at

FAA-towered airports. The 187 facilities represent 3.3 percent of

airports open to the public in the nation and about 34 percent of

commercial service airports. But all U.S. airports with scheduled

international service are included.

Intercity Bus

While the intercity bus industry provides mobility for residents of

rural and small urban areas, criteria development for this element of

the national system is complicated by the absence of detailed ridership

data. Given the circumstances, one possible approach would be to focus

on population served by bus facilities. For example, the NTS might

include all intercity bus terminals in urbanized areas of 100,000 or

more. Based on a ten-year old, joint DOT/ICC study of intercity bus

terminals, that would amount to about 500 terminals serving about 60

percent of all intercity bus users, including riders traveling to

metropolitan areas from isolated rural communities. Of course, it may

be worthwhile to consider other population thresholds or criteria. Is

this a workable way to identify intercity bus terminals, or are data

available which would allow a better approach?

Transit

Transit systems play an important role in meeting a variety of

national objectives. They are essential to the economic, social, and

cultural roles of our urban areas. They serve economic and systemic

functions by contributing to reduced highway congestion and air

pollution, and increased highway safety and energy savings. Transit

systems also serve a social function by providing basic mobility,

particularly to those without access to an automobile. The types of

transit facilities included in the NTS should reflect all of these

multiple objectives and roles.

Passenger volume-based criteria can serve to reflect transit's

economic importance. For example, the NTS could reasonably include all

urban rail transit lines (commuter rail, rapid rail, and light rail),

including supporting facilities, as well as those transit bus routes

(and related supporting facilities) serving substantial ridership--such

as, more than 5,000 passengers per day. This test would result in the

inclusion in the NTS of approximately 6,500 rail route miles and 11,000

bus route miles (representing 7 percent of total bus route miles).

These routes and facilities carry a total of 5.1 billion passengers per

year (67 percent of total transit passengers) and 27 billion passenger

miles per year (72 percent of total transit passenger miles). Does the

proposed threshold reach those lines and systems which are most

important from an economic perspective?

While passenger volumes reflect transit's economic and urban

linkage functions, they are probably an inadequate measure of the

social role which transit plays, e.g., transportation for the

disadvantaged. But, as indicated above, determining the extent to which

specific transit facilities and routes serve significant social

functions is fairly difficult, at present.

Railroads

Freight Rail Systems

Freight rail systems play critical roles in the nation's

transportation system. The privately-owned and operated rail freight

system carries nearly 40 percent of total U.S. freight traffic,

measured in ton-miles; many rail lines are also important for purposes

of national defense and emergency readiness. It may be useful to apply

a combination of several criteria, using national defense, system

linkage, and other factors as well as traffic volume to determine the

freight line component. Two examples are:

(1) Rail lines with freight activity in excess of 5 million gross

tons per year, rail lines in the defense-related strategic corridor

network, and connecting lines for national system linkage. This package

would account for 49 percent of total route miles in the U.S., and 95

percent of the nation's total freight revenue ton-miles.

(2) Rail lines with freight activity in excess of 20 million gross

tons per year, rail lines in the defense-related strategic corridor

network, and connecting lines for national system linkage. This option

would represent 34 percent of total route miles in the U.S., and 86

percent of the nation's total railroad revenue ton-miles.

Passenger Rail System

Amtrak, the country's rail passenger network, provides

transportation links between major cities and to all regions of the

country, including rural areas that may have no other form of public

transportation. The current system consists of 24,000 route miles and

540 stations. What is the appropriate threshold for the NTS in this

case? Certain routes on the east and west coasts and in the upper

midwest have passenger volumes that are much heavier than many other

routes on which usage is lighter and/or more seasonal. Do current or

future usage patterns provide a structure for identifying the Amtrak

routes and facilities most important to the country? For example,

routes which carry 70-80% of Amtrak's annual ridership might be

included in a national system.

Amtrak Stations

Data on station usage--examples of which appear below--provide

information that would appear to be useful in identifying the

appropriate stations for inclusion in the initial NTS. What level of

passenger activity would be most appropriate for selecting stations for

inclusion in the NTS? Are there other data that would be useful in this

regard?

48 of Amtrak's 540 stations serve two-thirds of the

passengers;

75 percent of Amtrak traffic is handled at 86 stations;

and

63 stations (handling at least 100,000 passengers

annually) account for more than 70 percent of the total traffic;

Water Transport

Water transport is significant for economic and defense reasons.

The marine transport industry carries over 1.9 billion metric tons of

materials, parts and consumer items in domestic and foreign commerce.

Further, a number of the facilities used by this industry play a role

in strategic defense.

Ports and Harbors

U.S. deep draft ports are critical links, not only in support of

our foreign commerce (amounting to about 950 million metric tons

annually), but also in support of trade to the non-contiguous States

and Territories (over 250 million metric tons annually), as well as

intracoastal and coastwise traffic. The 1,205 miles of Congressionally-

designated channels and canals created by dredging, widening and

canalization form an extensive network that provides deep draft

shipping lanes. A tax on the value of goods moving through these

channels and ports is paid into the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund,

which the Corps of Engineers uses for maintenance dredging.

There are 355 ports in the United States handling cargo at some

4,000 terminals within these ports. As in airports, traffic is

concentrated. One hundred and fifty of those ports--42 percent of the

total--account for 99 percent of the cargo tonnage. And like rail

lines, some ports also have strategic defense significance, which

should also be considered in defining the maritime port components of

the NTS. Finally, the Louisiana Off Shore Oil Port (``LOOP'') may be

nationally significant for reasons of energy production and economic

impact.

How many ports--including the improved channel and canals needed to

connect those ports to the deep draft sea lanes--should the NTS

encompass? Two examples emphasizing traffic measures might be:

(1) Twenty-nine ports handling at least eighteen million metric

tons of cargo per year account for nearly 70 percent of total

waterborne cargo.

(2) At an alternative level of concentration, 80 percent of total

waterborne cargo is handled at 45 ports. Adding two ports to this

number provides 80 percent coverage for foreign cargo handled, as well.

Inland and Intracoastal Waterways

There are 25,000 miles of navigable waterways within the United

States. Congress has declared 10,600 miles--about 40 percent of the

total--to be major inland waterways subject to fuel taxes and

maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers. This Congressionally-defined

system consists of 168 lock sites, as well as dams and other

improvements. Its chief role is providing low-cost shipping of

commodities (563 million metric tons of coal, grain, etc.). The

arterial segments--accounting for more than 90 percent of U.S. domestic

waterborne traffic ton-miles--are commonly known as ``fuel tax''

waterways because barge operators and other users pay fuel taxes under

the Inland Waterways Revenue Act of 1978 and the Water Resources

Development Act of 1986.

In addition, the Great Lakes and connecting channels and locks

total 2,000 miles of interstate and foreign commerce routes. Dedicated

Great Lakes vessels haul 97.4 million metric tons of goods basic to

midwest industry and provide ports as far west as Chicago with access

to global markets through the St. Lawrence Seaway. In 1992, 2,642

vessel transits were made of the St. Lawrence Seaway, moving, a total

of 32.7 million metric tons of cargo.

While Congress has designated a 10,600 mile inland waterway system

to be subject to the waterways fuel tax, some other set of waterways

may be appropriate for the NTS. One approach is suggested by the fact

that just over one-half of the Congressionally-designated system

handles about 97 percent of the total ton-mile freight volume on the

system. The major facilities on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence

Seaway, together with some set of inland waterways, would constitute

the waterway component of the NTS.

Pipelines

Petroleum pipelines account for 53 percent of all the crude oil and

petroleum products carried in the domestic U.S. transportation system--

about 17.5 million barrels per day. Natural gas pipelines deliver

approximately 46.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, serving

more than 55 million customers. While it is not feasible to include all

of the field, gathering, and distribution pipelines, the major

interstate and long-distance oil and gas pipelines clearly are a

critical part of our national transportation system by virtue of their

significance in energy transportation. One possibility is as follows:

Petroleum Pipelines

Interstate crude pipelines--58,000 miles

Interstate product pipelines--88,000 miles

Interstate crude trunk lines (12 inches in diameter, on average)

represent about 29 percent of total mileage. Interstate product trunk

lines (of widely varying diameter) account for about 43 percent of

total mileage.

Natural Gas Pipelines

Transmission--interstate--275,000 miles

Long distance transmission lines between 24 to 36 inches in

diameter represent approximately 29 percent of total gas pipeline

mileage.

Intermodal Connections

The NTS will specifically include intermodal hubs--facilities that

serve as collection points and as transfer points between modes and

transportation services. While data on these hubs will be collected

from a variety of sources, mode by mode, we hope the NTS will enable us

to analyze the intermodal effectiveness of all major hubs--airports,

train stations, freight terminals, ports, bus and transit depots, etc.

It is at intermodal collection and transfer points that travel delays

and inefficiencies often occur. It is our intent that the NTS be useful

to planners, other public officials and private transportation firms

across the nation as an analytical tool to identify and begin to solve

such bottlenecks.

Most, if not all of these will be identified for inclusion in the

NTS through the Congressionally-mandated NHS intermodal facility

identification process or will fall under one or more of the categories

described above. Still, we will need to be alert to circumstances where

the importance of the connection facility stems from its collective

role, rather than its importance to any one modal system.

Cross-Cutting Criteria

In addition to the volume-based considerations outlined above,

there may be other categories of criteria that will help identify the

appropriate facilities for NTS purposes. A number of these are

described below. In some instances, State and local planning

authorities will help apply these criteria. Presumably, the use of

multiple criteria does not require that all of the individual criteria

be satisfied to qualify; rather, meeting one or more of the criteria

finally used could qualify a facility or route for inclusion on the

initial NTS.

Connectivity

The modal systems within the NTS must connect internally and with

each other. This will mean that certain segments or facilities might be

included because they make the system continuous or provide an

essential connection among modes.

Population Clusters

It may be useful to favor facilities serving large metropolitan

areas--for example, in areas exceeding some level of population (e.g.,

250,000, 500,000). This is a way of ensuring that the NTS incorporates

facilities providing existing or potential service to the major

population clusters of the country. (At first blush, this would seem to

be a more fitting criteria for passenger service than for freight

service.)

National Coverage

In order to ensure that the NTS ties the nation together it might

be appropriate to designate at least one facility in each (applicable)

modal category (i.e. airport, freight rail, etc.) within every State or

region.

International Trade

Facilities and routes serving important border crossings or ports

of entry would be identified on the initial NTS to ensure that the NTS

supports the country's international economic competitiveness

objectives.

Defense and Emergency Readiness

Facilities necessary for defense purposes will be a part of the

NTS. They will be defined by the appropriate Federal agencies.

Special National or Regional Functions

As indicated above, it may be possible and useful to identify

populations with special mobility needs or economic activities that

have an impact on national objectives, but which are not captured by

other criteria. (Examples of the latter may be important recreational

or tourist locations (e.g., national parks) or coal producing regions

in West Virginia or Wyoming.) Since it is possible to make these

arguments for many groups and activities, such criteria must stress the

importance of these impacts at the regional or national level. State

and local impacts are no less important, but are better addressed by

the transportation planning processes at these levels.

Summary

In an era of increasing international competition, we cannot afford

to let an inefficient, piecemeal transportation network waste the

Nation's time and energy resources and hold our economy back. The NTS

will help us overcome the fragmented history of transportation

development by providing us with a framework for analysis and

decisionmaking that will lead to a more integrated and effective

system. With your help, decisions on the criteria for the NTS can be

made, and we can begin building the analytical framework that will

produce an efficient intermodal transportation system, ready to serve

the traveling and shipping public in the 21st Century.

As indicated at the outset, this document is intended to stimulate

substantive discussion about how to begin building that analytical

framework and identifying the strategic components of the nation's

total transportation system. We invite your active participation.

Determining the criteria for including transportation facilities in the

NTS is an important procedural step in the larger NTS process. In

seeking consensus on the NTS criteria, we hope to foster a frank and

wide-ranging evaluation of the ways our national transportation system

is now working and--more specifically--to engage in a practical,

focused examination of the kinds of information, data, and analysis we

will all need in order to make that system as efficient, accessible,

and productive as possible.

Questions for Discussion

1. Which of the criteria suggested in the Working Paper most

accurately capture the essential elements of the national

transportation network, across all modes?

2. What multimodal transportation performance data are available

that might be helpful in the identification of the initial NTS?

3. Are there measurable criteria currently available which will

better capture the national impacts of transportation on economic,

environmental and social objectives?

4. How can criteria be developed or adjusted to reflect economic

and other objectives more directly and accurately?

5. Do these criteria establish comparable and appropriate levels of

inclusion across the various transportation modes? Are any elements

over-represented or under-represented? In what way?

6. What factors have we failed to consider in this initial effort

to define the NTS? How would one measure them?

7. What are the best ways to reflect social and environmental

objectives in the identification of the NTS?

8. How should the NTS deal with the future, i.e., with anticipated

or planned facilities or actions? Would it be useful to adopt a

planning horizon, and, if so, what should it be? How do we select

system additions that are ``real,'' in the sense of having an

acceptable likelihood of implementation?

9. What kinds of criteria can be used to identify significant

intermodal facilities, and do they identify terminals that will not

qualify by other measures?

10. Are there criteria that would reflect, on a national or

regional scale, the mobility requirements for such groups as rural

residents or the disabled?

Issued this 18th day of August 1994, in Washington, DC.

Michael P. Huerta,

Associate Deputy Secretary and Director, Office of Intermodalism.

[FR Doc. 94-20723 Filed 8-23-94; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4910-62-P