[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 120 (Thursday, June 23, 1994)]
[Unknown Section]
[Page 0]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-15293]


[[Page Unknown]]

[Federal Register: June 23, 1994]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
 

National Transportation System Initiative: Outreach for Issues, 
Positions, Problems, and Recommended Solutions

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, DOT.

ACTION: Request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The Department of Transportation seeks to broaden its 
knowledge and develop consensus on the physical components, performance 
characteristics, and other aspects of a National Transportation System 
(NTS). The information will be used to develop the Department's 
proposals for future transportation legislation and to enhance 
transportation decisionmaking to better achieve national goals.

DATE: Comments must be received on or before August 22, 1994, to be 
fully considered in reviewing the proposed approach for conducting the 
Department's NTS initiative.

ADDRESS: 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, DC 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, DC 20590, Ph: (202) 366-5781
Mr. Stephen Palmer, Assistant Secretary for Governmental Affairs, Room 
10408, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC 20590, Ph: (202) 366-
4573
Mr. Frank Kruesi, Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy, Room 
10228, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC 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 basic NTS concept through several channels 
including Federal Register notices, regional workshops, community 
forums, etc. Information on upcoming opportunities for public comment 
will be announced through notices in the Federal Register, local 
newspapers and broadcast facilities, trade publications, and other 
media outlets.
    The following text sets forth the DOT's framework for defining and 
establishing the National Transportation System. It reflects current 
thinking about the concept of the National Transportation System--its 
purpose, use and benefits--and describes the process we are using to 
define the system and ensure its continuing evolution in response to 
the changing needs of our Nation.

Why a National Transportation System?

    Congress, in landmark legislation for transportation, the 
Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA), 
declared:
    ``It is the policy of the United States to develop a National 
Intermodal Transportation System that is economically efficient and 
environmentally sound, provides the foundation for the Nation to 
compete in the global economy, and will move people and goods in an 
energy efficient manner.''
    In December 1993, the DOT designated a 159,000-mile National 
Highway System for approval by Congress. It is now time to develop a 
full National Transportation System. Congress intended, and we concur, 
that the National Transportation System encompass all modes of 
transportation--including those yet to be developed. It intended that 
all these modes be inter-connected to promote interests that are of 
critical importance to our country, including: clean air, reduced 
energy consumption and safe, comfortable and cost effective 
transportation--the real engine of economic development and a measure 
of the quality of our lives.
    Commitment to a multimodal National Transportation System marks a 
departure from the historic perspective of the Federal Government, 
which in the past traditionally focused on developing and financing 
individual forms of transportation. The result, although the most 
extensive and safest transportation infrastructure in the world, has 
been the development of a separate, often fragmented and less than 
adequate infrastructure of airports, highways, rail, urban transit, 
ports and waterways. Federal transportation dollars have been invested 
in individual projects with little consideration of the impact of the 
investment on other forms of transportation or on the economy. Often, 
investments were driven mainly by the availability of federal funds. 
For years, overlapping levels of government and special jurisdictions 
have undercut efforts at more comprehensive planning, resulting in 
infrastructure disconnects and inadequacies--inefficiencies that 
reverberate adversely through the economies of states, regions and 
indeed the country as a whole.
    Transportation planning and coordination have improved 
substantially in recent years. Still, however, suburban areas make 
decisions inconsistent with urban areas and vice versa; states and 
their transportation departments vary on the extent to which they 
cooperate with neighboring states or consider decisions made by their 
own cities and Metropolitan Planning Organizations.
    Meanwhile, America's transportation infrastructure crosses these 
lines, and America's need for a well maintained, uncongested, seamless 
transportation system that serves the present and opens the future, 
requires that we make a bold step and shift from nurturing individual 
transportation needs and fragmented projects to enhancing the 
effectiveness of the Nation's transportation system as a whole.

What Will the National Transportation System Do?

    The Department of Transportation's Strategic Plan states our 
intention to establish, in keeping with ISTEA, a National 
Transportation System that integrates all modes of transportation for 
people and freight and emphasizes connections, choices, and 
coordination of services to position this country as an effective 
economic competitor in the global market. The National Transportation 
System will:
    (1) Map the Nation's major transportation networks for all modes.
    (2) Identify local, regional and national bottlenecks, missing 
linkages and needed new components in our existing infrastructure 
across all modes--which will lead all levels of governments and the 
private sector towards targeting investments to meet those needs.
    (3) Enable the Department, for the first time, to assess the 
conditions and performance of the entire national system, so we can 
better develop national and global policies, and identify strategic 
investments.
    (4) Implement ISTEA's mandates to integrate all modes into the 
metropolitan and statewide transportation planning processes so that 
cost-benefit analyses for capital projects, and management systems that 
address operations, congestion relief and intermodal system 
requirements take into account the full transportation picture. 
Decision makers should be able to choose, for example when considering 
short-haul needs, between building additional airport capacity or rail 
passenger service.
    (5) Encourage transportation decision-makers at all levels to favor 
investments that further the interdependence of local, regional and 
national networks, thus leveraging the benefits of all.
    (6) Engender confidence among our citizens that their tax dollars 
are being invested wisely and strategically. In meeting these 
objectives we will:
     Help accomplish our national goals of economic growth, 
international trade, national defense, environmental improvement, and 
transportation safety and security.
     Enable the Nation to respond more effectively to national 
defense emergencies and to disasters such as earthquakes, floods and 
hazardous materials spills.
     Develop transportation services that respond more rapidly 
to market changes and to the ever-changing needs of users.

What Constitutes the NTS?

    The National Transportation System cannot include every road, bus 
line or port, important as these are to the immediate users. Rather, 
the National Transportation System is a concept, only now evolving, to 
encompass the transportation components that make important 
contributions to regional, national and international interests--
economic interests, security interests and safety interests.
    One component of the system, the National Highway System, has, 
after much outreach and analysis, been initially defined and is 
currently being considered by Congress. In the course of the next 
months we will add transportation components from all modes--aviation, 
intercity buses, pipelines, ports, waterways, transit and freight and 
passenger railroads, as well as the connecting links that enable the 
entire system to operate effectively.
    Ideally, criteria for becoming part of the NTS should be clear and 
consistent, measuring the contribution that a facility makes to our 
national or regional economic, defense, social and environmental goals. 
We will focus initially on identifying fixed facilities such as rights 
of way and terminals. But the National Transportation System is far 
more than a map and list of infrastructure facilities. We need to 
understand how our transportation facilities are used, how well they 
serve our population and how they affect key national objectives. To 
this end, we will consider high use transportation facilities for 
inclusion in the NTS--facilities that carry large numbers of vehicles, 
passengers or freight. But some national objectives cannot be captured 
by volume measures alone. We might well consider small facilities that 
help fill the gaps within and between our existing modal facilities, or 
facilities which acquire particular importance in emergency situations, 
or have social benefits not easily quantifiable for providing access to 
health care, education and recreation. Some components of privately 
owned and operated transportation facilities will be part of the 
National Transportation System, and this designation would likely 
encourage public-private partnerships to further a unified and 
integrated transportation system.
    In all, the National Transportation System will provide us a policy 
framework within which we can evaluate and measure service levels as 
well as the impacts and effectiveness of our laws and regulations, and 
plan the Federal Government's infrastructure investments.

What Process Will We Use to Shape the NTS?

    The Department believes that the NTS concept must be developed in 
concert with Congress, other federal agencies, state and local 
officials, the transportation industry and interested citizens.
    To this end we are embarking upon a nationwide outreach effort, 
discussing all aspects of the NTS with interested groups and 
individuals. We will use this outreach effort to help us sharpen the 
concept and purpose of the NTS, develop identification criteria for 
inclusion in the NTS, and forge the NTS into a powerful and dynamic 
tool for citizens, policy makers, and elected officials. By the end of 
1994, the Department will have developed and received public comments 
on specific criteria for identifying the system and guidance for the 
participation of state and local governments and the private sector in 
the identification process. By September of 1995, we plan to have an 
initial NTS map, a process for updating it, and will use what we have 
learned to develop the Administration's proposal for comprehensive 
transportation legislation to succeed ISTEA.
    Throughout this process we expect state and local officials to use 
the metropolitan and state-wide intermodal planning processes and 
management systems already established by ISTEA. These efforts, as well 
as information on the conditions and performance of transportation 
facilities, will comprise the base line data for developing the NTS. We 
believe that the development of the National Transportation System 
concept, with full public participation, will form a sound basis for 
the next generation of federal transportation policy--beyond ISTEA.
    The Department invites the public and private sector to join us in 
a National Transportation System dialogue. The Department seeks public 
input in developing an integrated approach to decisionmaking that 
utilizes better information and analytical processes to maximize the 
benefits derived from transportation investments. Public comments are 
sought on the full spectrum of policy issues associated with the NTS, 
but the Department is particularly interested in responses to the 
following questions:
    (1) We have suggested how an NTS might be used by the Department. 
Do you agree? What changes would you propose?
    (2) Do you think an NTS will be useful to State and local officials 
and to private entities? How might it be made more useful to them?
    (3) We have suggested that the identification of an NTS can flow 
from the outreach process and from the metropolitan and statewide 
planning processes. What suggestions do you have for identifying and 
designating an NTS? How can we achieve a national perspective in the 
selection process?
    (4) How should we deal with community impact, safety and 
environmental consequences?
    (5) What aspects of local and regional transportation should be 
included in an NTS, and why?
    (6) How should the private sector be involved in the identification 
process?
    (7) How can we ensure that the NTS is designed to include a future 
orientation and will improve transportation practices and decisions?
    (8) What regulatory or legislative changes would be useful to 
support the NTS concept?
    (9) What other suggestions do you have concerning the NTS, its 
uses, and the process by which it is established?
    Comment by all parties on these and other transportation issues is 
welcome.

    Issued this 20th day of June, 1994, in Washington, DC.
Michael P. Huerta,
Associate Deputy Secretary and Director, Office of Intermodalism.
[FR Doc. 94-15293 Filed 6-22-94; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-62-P