Learning east coast lessons

And the EDC is a organisation worth meeting. It has impressed me with its business-like approach to cutting through the clutter found in most political processes.

New York, with five boroughs, and a bi-State Port Authority, is more complicated than most and while project timelines are sometimes measured in decades, the EDC’s successes might be instructive for other ports.

Congestion mitigation – a polite way of describing reduced truck traffic – is a focus for much of the transportation planning around the New York area.

During one of the EDC presentations, my ears perked up when I heard the words “….traffic has dramatically exceeded our expectations…”

The old Howland Hook facility, on Staten Island, re-born several years ago as the New York Container Terminal, now benefits from a direct on-dock rail linked to big Class 1 railroads reaching well beyond the New York area.

In 2008, planners were projecting that truck trips across the Goethals or antiquated Bayonne Bridge would be reduced by 45,000 annually. In 2012, the EDC was estimating that rail throughput was eliminating something like 90,000 truck trips each year, as local politicians continued to squabble over tolls for trucks crossing the Goethals bridge. Now, plans are afoot for additional berths at NYCT.

Other initiatives, notably on the Brooklyn waterfront, tied to a revitalised rail car float link across to New Jersey for more specialised cargo, are also underway. Rail barges are not just for restaurants.

Long-time followers of the New Yorker will remember the importance I put on a holistic approach to supply chains. Indeed, the rail float business had been under study for potential ‘Marine Highway’ funding from the US Department of Transportation. The NYC EDC with a primary mission of bolstering economic activity in New York City, thinks along similar lines.

Other ports ought to look closely at the win-win approach here, fitting into the broader transportation network, with the back-story of benefits to the local economy in once abandoned parts of places like Brooklyn and Staten Island.