[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 163 (Wednesday, August 24, 1994)]
[Unknown Section]
[Page 0]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-20723]


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[Federal Register: August 24, 1994]


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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.

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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]
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