Statement prepared for the Mississippi Senate Highways and Transportation Committee

Jackson, Mississippi

July 25, 2006

By
Gilbert E. Carmichael

Senior Chairman, Intermodal Transportation Institute/University of Denver
Former Chairman, Amtrak Reform Council
Federal Railroad Administrator, 1989-1993

I appreciate the opportunity to appear before this committee. Time does not permit a lengthy discussion of transportation trends, issues, and needs. Allow me to make three points that underscore the need for fresh thinking about how Mississippi state government organizes and executes its important transportation functions.

During the past 25 years, a revolution has occurred in transportation. A global intermodal freight network has evolved. It is now the global standard for moving freight. This intermodal network is sharply focused on speed, safety, reliable scheduling, and economic efficiency. It builds on the strengths of each mode, who have become partners in offering service. It makes use of the cargo container. Cargo ships and airplanes span the oceans. The freight railroad is the high-speed, long-distance land transport artery. The truck provides local feeder service at origins and destinations. This intermodal system works. It continues to grow. Its future success will hinge partly upon our ability to further improve the routes and terminals which make it work. Yes, a revolution in freight transportation has occurred. But the general public certainly is not aware of it. Most public officials and opinion leaders don’t even know of its existence.

My second example is an outgrowth of the first one, and is taking place right here in Mississippi. It’s the Meridian Speedway. It isn’t a racetrack. It’s a rail corridor jointly developed by Kansas City Southern and Norfolk Southern [railroads]. This is a high-speed, high capacity rail freight route between Meridian and Shreveport. The Meridian Speedway is emerging as the most important east-west rail corridor across the Deep South. This project will surely be the most important transportation improvement in our state for at least the next decade. It offers impressive economic development potential. Elsewhere in North America several regional intermodal terminals are being built to combine the traditional notion of transferring freight between rail and truck, but also to place freight customers’ regional distribution centers at these transfer points. The community leadership of Meridian is considering such a facility. Again, here we have a project of vital importance to our state’s future, and most people don’t know about it.

My final example is a report commissioned by the National Center for Intermodal Transportation after the September 11, 2001, tragedy. It represents a consensus of transportation experts who concluded that the nation needs a new transportation agenda. The disruption caused by the events of September 11 disclosed serious flaws in our transportation systems. But the terrorist attacks only magnified problems and defects which have existed for years. This report is brief and easy to read. It should prompt fresh thinking about how we face today’s needs and tomorrow’s challenges.

Although dramatic changes have occurred in transportation during the past quarter-century, the organization and structure of our federal and state transportation agencies is still locked into a style and mind set that prevailed before the intermodal revolution occurred. We need reform I offer the following recommendations.

A fourth member should be added to our three-member elected Mississippi Transportation Commission. The new member would not be elected, but would be appointed by the governor and would also serve as the chief executive of the Department of Transportation. The governor is the state’s chief executive. The DOT represents a major executive function. The agency needs close working relationships with programs under the governor’s jurisdiction - economic development, finance, tax policy, and so on.
The chief executive of the DOT should have to principal deputies, one to oversee policies and programs associated with freight transportation, the other to carry out an identical role in passenger transportation.
Senior executives of the DOT should have a working knowledge of the new principles of intermodal transportation, because a majority of policy decisions and projects need to be carried out with intermodal needs given priority - for both freight and passenger improvement. Senior DOT executives either should have gained this intermodal knowledge through professional experience in the transportation industry or they should receive formal academic training.

Dividing the DOT’s executive functions - policy, planning, programs, grants - into two main functions - freight and passenger - makes practical sense. It also would make a powerful statement that we in fact do understand that the world has changed. Think about it. By tradition, government agencies concentrate on infrastructure. Highway agencies build and maintain roads. Airport authorities build and maintain airports. We hand out grants to other modes to help them upgrade infrastructure. There are several things wrong with this arrangement. It leads to one-dimensional thinking. We concentrate on infrastructure, but we don’t really pay much attention to how it is used - or where the most promising opportunities exist. Freight’s intermodal network has succeeded because it is customer-driven. Our “infrastructure mentality” also causes government officials to view the modes in insolation, yet the intermodal system prospers by efficiently unifying them.

This division of responsibilities will help eliminate another unhealthy tradition. Among public officials at all levels of government - including many in transportation agencies - the ignorance of freight transportation is almost universal. Some regional planning agencies have developed transportation plans which devote more attention to bicycle paths than to freight transportation. Yet for every passenger moving on America’s transportation system, a ton of freight is moving. Ignorance about freight leads to bad decisions and missed opportunities. Nearly all of our recent progress and innovation in transportation has come in the freight area, and nearly all of those gains are attributable to action by the private sector - not government. And I believe that freight will continue be the category in which we achieve the most impressive gains. Unfortunately, government is heavily involved in passenger policy. Government has resisted reform and modernization. We badly need an intermodal systems approach to passenger service in America. In this regard we are at least 20 years behind the freight industry.

Finally, under this obsolete thinking which focuses on individual modes, individual infrastructure, and a lack of knowledge of customers and markets, some important issues fall through the cracks because they don’t have a government “home.” The most striking example is the intercity bus industry. We are in danger of losing it. Most people don’t care. They should. In many markets there is no alternative commercial service - today or in the future. As commuter air service retreats from cities of less than 100,000 population, people will still have to get to airport, only they will be farther away. The choice is simple - bus or private car. I believe that a major early project for a new passenger division of the reformed Mississippi DOT would be a thorough, market-based, and visionary analysis of what it would take to achieve a substantial expansion of private-sector intercity bus service in our state.

Thank you.

Gil Carmichael can be reached at gil@missouth.com