United States Department of Transportation
i
National Strategy for the Marine Transportation System: A Framework for Action
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2008-07-01
[PDF-1.19 MB]
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Edition:Executive Summary
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Abstract:America’s Marine Transportation System (MTS) moves people and goods through U.S. ports, utilizing a system of harbor channels and waterways to final delivery points or connections to highways, railways, and pipelines, and it is thriving. The MTS allows the worldwide distribution of our Nation’s agricultural and manufactured products. The MTS also carries 43.5 percent by value and 77.6 percent by weight of all U.S. international trade. The Department of Transportation (DOT) predicts that between 2010 and 2020 the value of freight carried by water will increase 43 percent domestically and 67 percent internationally. In 2006, 27 million 20- foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containerized cargo (an international industry standard) were loaded and unloaded at U.S. ports. If all of these containers were placed end to end, they would circle the globe four times. The MTS is at a crossroad. While MTS trade is thriving, segments of the MTS are showing signs of strain, which will intensify as cargo and passenger traffic increases. Large containerized cargo ports, which are beginning to experience capacity problems, will be pressured to keep up with the growth in trade. The MTS physical infrastructure will experience increased strain and become prone to failures. The U.S. military’s reliance on MTS ports to deliver equipment and supplies to defense forces abroad adds to the strain. Globalization and international trade, U.S. security commitments overseas, and treaty and Federal law requirements to protect human health and the marine environment pose critical planning challenges for the MTS in the areas of capacity, safety and security, environmental stewardship, resilience and reliability, and finance and economics. This framework for a national strategy describes the challenges that need to be addressed to improve the MTS and ensure that policies and actions of its Agencies are synchronized, coordinated with other policy facilitation structures such as the Committee on Ocean Policy, focused on the future, and targeted to the most critical issues.
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