Post by ferryfast admin on Jan 17, 2006 21:10:06 GMT -5
PA floats idea of cargo ferries
Use would ease truck traffic
Monday, January 16, 2006
BY RON MARSICO
Star-Ledger Staff
www.nj.com/
Since the mid-1980s, passenger ferry service has enjoyed a renaissance across the Hudson River. Now, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is pondering another use for the venerable mode of transport: Hauling freight.
Seeking to reduce the region's nettlesome truck traffic, the Port Authority is exploring the viability of moving cargo from New Jersey's waterfront to New York using high-speed ferries or self-propelled barges. These vessels could transport stacks of bins or container-loaded trucks and trains across the Hudson.
"Anybody who looks at the issue of trucks on roads can't help but say, 'Why don't we make better use of the waterways?'" said Robert Lurie, the Port Authority's chief of strategic planning, while stressing the limitations. "The problems are primarily financial. The cost of putting goods on boats is generally more expensive than putting it on trucks."
Even considering the idea of cargo ferries raises another problem for the Port Authority: the wrath of Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), the key advocate behind a proposed $4.8 billion to $7.4 billion freight rail tunnel between Jersey City and Brooklyn.
"We are being inundated by truck traffic -- New York and New Jersey," said Nadler, arguing cargo ferries would take too few vehicles off the roads. "This is the Port Authority in its usual stupidity to avoid spending the money on the rail freight tunnel."
Nadler last year obtained a $100 million federal grant for the Port Authority to design and engineer the approximately three-mile freight tunnel, but the bi-state agency balked. The agency cited other priorities like a new passenger rail tunnel from New Jersey to Midtown Manhattan and a direct train link from Lower Manhattan to John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Steve Coleman, a Port Authority spokesman, called the freight tunnel "a worthwhile project" but the governors of both states have dictated the other priorities.
Still others, including Jeff Zupan, a senior fellow for transportation issues with the Regional Plan Association, favors both ideas. The Port Authority, he said, should consider Nadler's tunnel as a long-term solution even as it explores freight ferries.
"Anything you can do to reduce the reliance on truck traffic is a good thing," said Zupan, noting RPA, a nonprofit planning group, will intensify its review of the issue this year. "The rail tunnel obviously is a much bigger investment (than ferries), and obviously will take more trucks off the road than anything else you do."
A NEW ROUTE
Moving freight by boats on the Hudson River is nothing new; it was common in the 19th Century. Even now, the New York Cross Harbor Railroad sends freight rail cars on barges between Brooklyn and Jersey City, but it is a small operation.
Fueled mostly by booming imports from Asia, container shipping freight is growing exponentially at the region's port, creating the dual needs of increasing warehouse storage facilities and moving goods faster from cramped docks in Newark and Elizabeth. Cargo-container trucks are how most goods are transported, but they add to the region's congestion and air pollution, while their heavy loads can damage roads and bridges.
Last year, New York City officials banned heavy trucks from the Throgs Neck Bridge between the Bronx and Queens during the day because of increasing cracks in the span's steel road decks.
With estimates that the region's overall freight volume will soar over the next 15 to 20 years anywhere from 25 to 70 percent, officials and experts are looking to trains, aircraft and boats as alternatives to trucks. MoveNYNJ, a coalition backing the tunnel, says the project would remove 1 million trucks a year from New York City streets, though Port Authority officials are skeptical.
Port-related truck trips represent a fraction of overall congestion. In 2000, the most recent year for figures, more than 24,000 trucks a day used the port, a figure expected to rise to more than 35,000 by 2020, according to the Port Authority.
The bi-state agency has joined with transportation and commerce experts at Rutgers University and New York University to study whether cargo ferries -- used in Europe and Asia -- make sense on the busy Hudson.
Lurie said the goal is to help determine "the types of markets and customers that might be interested" in alternatives to truck deliveries. Transport by water is more costly than trucks because it would require extra handling of freight, building facilities to handle boats and the initial investment for watercraft.
Offshoot ideas also are being evaluated.
They include the possibility of short-sea shipping to reduce the number of trucks in the metropolitan area. That could mean creating a loading area near Route 95 south of New Jersey, where goods could be sent by water to New England. Another idea is to send port freight further up the New Jersey Coast to a central warehouse for distribution.
Officials also are considering using ferries to ship air cargo from JFK Airport, but that idea faces problems because boats must move slowly to protect fragile wetlands near the hub.
"What we've learned about ferries for passengers is they fill niche markets," said Zupan, the RPA fellow. "It's clear to me the same thing would be true with carrying freight."
Ron Marsico covers the Port Authority. He can be reached at rmarsico@starledger.com or (973) 392-7860.
Use would ease truck traffic
Monday, January 16, 2006
BY RON MARSICO
Star-Ledger Staff
www.nj.com/
Since the mid-1980s, passenger ferry service has enjoyed a renaissance across the Hudson River. Now, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is pondering another use for the venerable mode of transport: Hauling freight.
Seeking to reduce the region's nettlesome truck traffic, the Port Authority is exploring the viability of moving cargo from New Jersey's waterfront to New York using high-speed ferries or self-propelled barges. These vessels could transport stacks of bins or container-loaded trucks and trains across the Hudson.
"Anybody who looks at the issue of trucks on roads can't help but say, 'Why don't we make better use of the waterways?'" said Robert Lurie, the Port Authority's chief of strategic planning, while stressing the limitations. "The problems are primarily financial. The cost of putting goods on boats is generally more expensive than putting it on trucks."
Even considering the idea of cargo ferries raises another problem for the Port Authority: the wrath of Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), the key advocate behind a proposed $4.8 billion to $7.4 billion freight rail tunnel between Jersey City and Brooklyn.
"We are being inundated by truck traffic -- New York and New Jersey," said Nadler, arguing cargo ferries would take too few vehicles off the roads. "This is the Port Authority in its usual stupidity to avoid spending the money on the rail freight tunnel."
Nadler last year obtained a $100 million federal grant for the Port Authority to design and engineer the approximately three-mile freight tunnel, but the bi-state agency balked. The agency cited other priorities like a new passenger rail tunnel from New Jersey to Midtown Manhattan and a direct train link from Lower Manhattan to John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Steve Coleman, a Port Authority spokesman, called the freight tunnel "a worthwhile project" but the governors of both states have dictated the other priorities.
Still others, including Jeff Zupan, a senior fellow for transportation issues with the Regional Plan Association, favors both ideas. The Port Authority, he said, should consider Nadler's tunnel as a long-term solution even as it explores freight ferries.
"Anything you can do to reduce the reliance on truck traffic is a good thing," said Zupan, noting RPA, a nonprofit planning group, will intensify its review of the issue this year. "The rail tunnel obviously is a much bigger investment (than ferries), and obviously will take more trucks off the road than anything else you do."
A NEW ROUTE
Moving freight by boats on the Hudson River is nothing new; it was common in the 19th Century. Even now, the New York Cross Harbor Railroad sends freight rail cars on barges between Brooklyn and Jersey City, but it is a small operation.
Fueled mostly by booming imports from Asia, container shipping freight is growing exponentially at the region's port, creating the dual needs of increasing warehouse storage facilities and moving goods faster from cramped docks in Newark and Elizabeth. Cargo-container trucks are how most goods are transported, but they add to the region's congestion and air pollution, while their heavy loads can damage roads and bridges.
Last year, New York City officials banned heavy trucks from the Throgs Neck Bridge between the Bronx and Queens during the day because of increasing cracks in the span's steel road decks.
With estimates that the region's overall freight volume will soar over the next 15 to 20 years anywhere from 25 to 70 percent, officials and experts are looking to trains, aircraft and boats as alternatives to trucks. MoveNYNJ, a coalition backing the tunnel, says the project would remove 1 million trucks a year from New York City streets, though Port Authority officials are skeptical.
Port-related truck trips represent a fraction of overall congestion. In 2000, the most recent year for figures, more than 24,000 trucks a day used the port, a figure expected to rise to more than 35,000 by 2020, according to the Port Authority.
The bi-state agency has joined with transportation and commerce experts at Rutgers University and New York University to study whether cargo ferries -- used in Europe and Asia -- make sense on the busy Hudson.
Lurie said the goal is to help determine "the types of markets and customers that might be interested" in alternatives to truck deliveries. Transport by water is more costly than trucks because it would require extra handling of freight, building facilities to handle boats and the initial investment for watercraft.
Offshoot ideas also are being evaluated.
They include the possibility of short-sea shipping to reduce the number of trucks in the metropolitan area. That could mean creating a loading area near Route 95 south of New Jersey, where goods could be sent by water to New England. Another idea is to send port freight further up the New Jersey Coast to a central warehouse for distribution.
Officials also are considering using ferries to ship air cargo from JFK Airport, but that idea faces problems because boats must move slowly to protect fragile wetlands near the hub.
"What we've learned about ferries for passengers is they fill niche markets," said Zupan, the RPA fellow. "It's clear to me the same thing would be true with carrying freight."
Ron Marsico covers the Port Authority. He can be reached at rmarsico@starledger.com or (973) 392-7860.