SMART TRANSPORTATION POLICY
Our organization advocates policies to build a core railway network of high-capacity, grade-separated, electrified rail lines for moving freight. We seek to create a broad-based, strong, and unified movement to build the North American Steel Interstate System.
WE ARE ON THE CUSP OF A TRANSPORTATION CRISIS: Forecasts from many sources predict that demand for freight transportation in the U.S. will as much as double by 2040. Interstate Highway capacity is increasingly congested, especially in urban areas. The Highway Trust Fund cannot afford to finance brand new roads or lane expansions. Indeed, maintenance of existing roads and bridges consumes more money than the Trust generates. Road widening projects are also being increasingly viewed as environmentally unacceptable. Trucking companies face a chronic driver shortage, railroads in many areas are at or near capacity, and both modes are wedded to oil and its greenhouse gas emissions. How, then, can future freight growth be accommodated?
SOLUTIONS! A HIGH-PERFORMANCE RAIL SYSTEM: Shifting to rail-based shipping and passenger transportation, powered by electricity from renewable sources, would significantly reduce our near-total dependence on oil and greatly reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. We could, if we act now, begin to add the sustainable infrastructure investment needed for new freight transport capacity, affordable mobility of people, and improved economic competitiveness and standard of living for decades to come.
ABOUT US: We are associated with Rail Solution, a 501(c)(3) organization promoting the environmental, energy, and economic advantages of rail transportation with a focus on traffic problems in the corridor between Harrisburg (PA) and Memphis (TN). We are also associated with the North American Steel Interstate Coalition (NASIC) which is an emerging effort to organize grassroots groups, business partners, and additional public and private agencies and organizations throughout North America.
Our organization advocates policies to build a core railway network of high-capacity, grade-separated, electrified rail lines for moving freight. We seek to create a broad-based, strong, and unified movement to build the North American Steel Interstate System.
WE ARE ON THE CUSP OF A TRANSPORTATION CRISIS: Forecasts from many sources predict that demand for freight transportation in the U.S. will as much as double by 2040. Interstate Highway capacity is increasingly congested, especially in urban areas. The Highway Trust Fund cannot afford to finance brand new roads or lane expansions. Indeed, maintenance of existing roads and bridges consumes more money than the Trust generates. Road widening projects are also being increasingly viewed as environmentally unacceptable. Trucking companies face a chronic driver shortage, railroads in many areas are at or near capacity, and both modes are wedded to oil and its greenhouse gas emissions. How, then, can future freight growth be accommodated?
SOLUTIONS! A HIGH-PERFORMANCE RAIL SYSTEM: Shifting to rail-based shipping and passenger transportation, powered by electricity from renewable sources, would significantly reduce our near-total dependence on oil and greatly reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. We could, if we act now, begin to add the sustainable infrastructure investment needed for new freight transport capacity, affordable mobility of people, and improved economic competitiveness and standard of living for decades to come.
ABOUT US: We are associated with Rail Solution, a 501(c)(3) organization promoting the environmental, energy, and economic advantages of rail transportation with a focus on traffic problems in the corridor between Harrisburg (PA) and Memphis (TN). We are also associated with the North American Steel Interstate Coalition (NASIC) which is an emerging effort to organize grassroots groups, business partners, and additional public and private agencies and organizations throughout North America.