The Perfect Storm How do Ports Plan for the Future

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The Perfect Storm?How do Ports Plan for the
Future?
Congestion
Freight Growth
Constrained Infrastructure
Jeannie Beckett, Sr. Dir. Inland Transportation,
Port of Tacoma Talking Freight Seminar, June
16,2004
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Steps in the Planning Process

• Strategic Business Plans
• Trend Forecasts
• Land Use Planning
• Capacity Studies
• Planning for the Future

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Strategic Business Planning

• What is your Vision and Mission?
• What is your core competencies?
• Where are your Growth potentials?
• Current Customers
• New Customers
• New Line of Business
• New ideas

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Forecasts

• World Cargo Trends
• US Trends
• State Forecasts
• Individual Port Cargo Forecasts

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Issues Are Systemic
According to GAOs 12/03 Freight Transportation
Study

• Studied 10 major international ports
• Handle 66 of all containers moving in and out of
  the country
• All face similar congestion-related problems
• Sited in dense urban areas
• Limited ability to expand rail yards, roadways
  and other infrastructure
• New security controls may exacerbate congestion
  by drastically slowing movement of goods

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Issues Are Systemic
According to GAOs 12/03 Freight Transportation
Study

• Freight movement projects receive limited
  visibility during planning and prioritization
• Limitations of federal funding for multimodal
  projects single mode focus
• No comprehensive evaluation approach to implement
  most effective projects

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Trends Effecting US Ports
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Port Land Use Planning What do You want to look
like when You grow up?
Looking inside your Port

• Terminal
• Waterways
• Roads
• Rail

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Forecast of Cargo Opportunities at the Port of
Tacoma
Forecast
Actual
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Potential Uses of Tideflats
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Widened Waterway At Hyundai Wharf
732 Ft 17 Wide 20 Wide 17 Wide 749 Ft 18
Wide 20 Wide 18 Wide 790 Ft 18 Wide 22
Wide 18 Wide 850 Ft 22 Wide 22 Wide 22 Wide
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Waterway Improvements Summary - Blair 2005
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Road Network Summary 2005
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Rail Expansion Summary 2005
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Capacity Studies

• Looking Outside the Port
• The Last Mile
• Getting your cargo to Final Destination

• Road
• Rail

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Freight Transportation the future

• Where will the needed capacity come from?
• Who will pay for it?
• Who will Benefit?
• How will Benefit calculations be determined?

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Planning for the FutureHow Do We Ensure System
Fluidity?

• Planning for things we cant control or influence
• Planning for things we can control or influence

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Things We Cant Control or Influence

• Mode shifts all indicators point to more
  intermodal, less road freight
• Longer trains five years ago, 6,000 ft near
  future, 8,000 ft
• Manufacturing trends China is hot now, but will
  inevitably cool down where will manufacturing
  go?
• Transloading and Distribution Centers

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Things We Can Control or Influence

• Operational methods
• Local rail network capacity and configurations
• Entering new or changed market sectors
• Legislative intervention, assistance and
  regulatory relaxation
• Focused funding, new Public Private Partnerships

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Planning For The Future

• From a Rail industry perspective
• Railroads focus on long end-to-end movements
  great for primary markets, not so good for
  non-end markets
• Inland ports, logistics centers, intermodal
  facilities are the current buzz
• Feeding the beast takes priority on the West
  Coast
• Freight is cool again, but not in urban areas

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Planning For The Future

• From a Rail industry perspective
• Rolling stock, crew resources, capacity all in
  high demand, short supply
• Railroads are opening up to public investment
• Congestion issues are getting attention GAO
  report
• Feds will have to pay attention to freight
  mobility funding a national concern

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Planning For The Future

• From a Port logistics perspective
• Planned stowage by steamship lines
• Agile port concept (Direct to Train) will be
  difficult to achieve
• Visibility is key know whats coming at you and
  when
• Free-flowing trains to inland intermodal
  yards? Eliminates much local switching, frees
  capacity?

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Planning For The Future

• From a Port funding perspective
• Infrastructure improvements hard to justify if
  not tied to revenue enhancement
• Grant funding is great, but administrative
  overhead can be onerous
• Competing with passenger dollars
• Funding needs will far outweigh financial
  capacity in near future

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Questions?