Freight trips often involve multiple modes and trips that cross multiple states.  To move efficiently, freight movement -- regional, national, and global -- must cross jurisdictional boundaries with as few impediments as possible.  To make it possible to plan and invest to assure reliable freight trips, multi-state freight corridor organizations are needed, especially where project costs are borne by a single state, but benefits accrue to several states.  Existing organizations such as the I-95 Corridor Coalition have considerable experience conducting analyses of highway, rail, and maritime freight movement but are not constituted to pan and implement an investment program.  At present no multi-state corridor organizations exist with the necessary authority and capacity to carry out a long-term program of freight planning and investment.  Research completed under NCFRP Report 2, Institutional Arrangements in the Freight Transportation System, relates directly to this issue.

   The objective of this research is to identify and evaluate existing multi-state coalitions, analyze key legal and financial issues, describe roles and responsibilities for multi-state freight organizations, and produce a report that specifies the necessary legal and financial frameworks as well as the preferred composition, organzational structure, and decision-making processes of multi-state freight organzations capable of developign and implementing a long-term investment plan.

Status: Published as web-only Document 2 and is available at

https://www.trb.org/Main/Blurbs/166070.aspx

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