Statistics from the FHWA on growth in number of containers shipped from Mexico focuses the question on the premises used to try to sell Texans on construction of the Trans Texas Corridor, one of the major legs of the NAFTA Super Highway.
Statistical evidence shows that traffic in rail containers from Canada has exploded more rapidly than growth in containers from Mexico during the past two decades. The increase in international truck traffic at the US Mexico and US Canadian borders has increased 25% from 1995-2005.
During the same period, the increase in international truck traffic at the US Mexico and US Canadian borders increased 25% from 1995-2005. There was about 13% increase in truck traffic from Mexico and about 12% increase in incoming truck traffic from Canada.Mexican truck traffic increased from 2,860,625 in 1995 to 4,675,887 in 1995; Canadian trucks coming into the US increased from 5,135,010 in 1995 to 6,783,944 in 2005. In 2005: 1,815,262 more trucks came into the US from Mexico than in 1995 and 1,651,934 more trucks came into the US from Canada than in 1995 than in 1995, yet over three times more containers entered the USA from Canada in 2005 by rail than entered from Mexico.
Although the number of miles of border between Canada and the USA is about the same as the miles of border between the USA and Mexico, a significantly larger number of rail containers and trucks enter the USA from Canada than from Mexico each year.
The need for improved freight shipment corridors from the Mexican border through Texas appears to be less critical to the economic welfare of Texas than linking Texas cities by rail and improving Texas’s internal traffic congestion.
INVESTMENTS IN MOVING PEOPLE
More transportation dollars are invested in highways and bridges in the United States than in any other mode of transportation. Statistical evidence proves that an increasing number of Americans who own automobiles are becoming users of mass transit. With air pollution escalating, local, state and national transportation planners and legislators need to devote more resources toward moving people than moving vehicles.
The safest mode of transportation per passenger mile traveled in the USA is shown statistically to be rail. A larger percentage of local, state and federal transportation dollars should be invested in passenger rail. Passenger rail in this nation needs to improve its on-time efficiency and infrastructure should be created to service more citizens, offering additional service between places where significant numbers of commuters currently travel by automobile.
PROBLEMS WITH EFFICIENCY
Efficiency in passenger rail in the USA is hampered by host railroads. Host railroads control the tracks. Statistics from 2000-2005 from the US Bureau of Transportation shows that the number of hours of delay for AMTRAK passenger trains rose from 70,396 annually in 2000 to 95,259 annually in 2005. Most of those delays (43,881 hours in 2000 and 64,097 hours in 2005) are attributed to operation delays of host railroads, such as track and signal related delays, power failures, freight and commuter train interference, routing delays, freight train interference, and track repair/condition delays. In 2005 25,549 hours of delay for AMTRAK passenger trains were attributed to AMTRAK's operating problems on AMTRAK's own tracks (delays for equipment or engine failure, passenger handling, holding for connections, train servicing and mail/baggage handling when on tracks of a host railroad). Problems caused by the host railroad resulted in 64,097 hours of AMTRAK passenger train delay during 2005. That same year, 5,613 hours of delay for AMTRAK Passenger trains were caused by weather, immigration, law enforcement or waiting for scheduled departure times. [SOURCE: 2000-2005 - AMTRAK, personal communication, November 2006 - U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics - Reported Dec. 2006]
Host railroads have decreased in efficiency. In 2000, 2001 and 2002 about half of the delays were caused by problems with the host railroad. The percentage of hours of delay for AMTRAK passenger trains attributed to host railroad problems escalated by 75% between 2000 and 2005.
AMTRAK TRAINS ARRIVING ON TIME - 1995-2005
In 1995 AMTRAK's system on-time performance was 76%. Shorter distance routes are more frequently on-time than routes over 400 miles. In 1995 long distance routes (over 400 miles) were only on-time 57% of the time while shorter routes were on-time 81% of the time. Performance has declined. In 2005 AMTRAK's on-time performance system-wide was 70%. Trains were on-time 74% of the time on routes under 400 miles and were on-time 42% of the time on routes over 400 miles. [SOURCES: 1995-1999 - National Railroad Passenger Corp. (AMTRAK), Amtrak Annual Report (Washington, DC annual issue). 2000-2005- Amtrak, personal communication, November 2006. US Bureau of Transportation Statistics Dec. 2006]
AMTRAK ridership increased about 25% from 1995 to 2005. From 1994 to 2004 the number of passenger miles for all modes of mass transit increased about 20% (from 39,585 passenger miles in 1994 to 49,073 passenger miles in 2004). Passenger rail ridership (all modes - heavy rail, commuter rail and light rail) increased over 25% from 1994 to 2005. In the early 1990ies buses carried more passengers than rail; by 1996 the number of rail passengers had exceeded the number of miles traveled by passengers on buses. Bus and rail ridership continues to grow. Passenger train ridership has grown more rapidly than bus ridership.
COST OF OWNING A VEHICLE
Operating an automobile has become more costly. Before the rapid rise in gasoline prices, the cost of operating a car had already increased. Data from 1994 shows the average cost per mile for owning and operating an automobile was 39 cents. In 2004 it had risen to 56 cents per mile. Gasoline price (regular) rose from $1.15 per gallon in 1995 to $2.30 per gallon in 2005. The increase in mass transit fares (all modes - domestic air, commuter rail, city and intercity buses and intercity rail) only rose 20% from 1995 to 2005 while the cost of operating a vehicle increased about 33% during the same period.
MASS TRANSIT RIDERSHIP INCREASED AMONG HOUSEHOLDS OWNING A CAR
While 2% fewer households were without a vehicle in 2005 than in 1993, mass transit ridership increased about 20% nationwide (1993-2005). [U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau, American Housing Survey for the United States, H150 (Washington, DC: Biennial issues) and US Bureau of Transportation Statistics Dec. 2006 Report.]
MOST DEADLY MODES OF TRANSPORTATION
During the decade 1995-2005 fatalities in passenger cars and light trucks in the USA totaled 261,068. During that same decade 411 bus passengers died, and there were 72 fatalities on trains. (This does not include deaths at rail crossings). In the decade 1995-2005 there were 6,737 air carrier fatalities.
Injured passengers from air accidents numbered 4,146 during the 1995-2005 decade. On surface modes of transportation, rail passengers were less likely to be injured than bus or passenger car/light truck passengers. During the 1995-2005 decade a total of 108,871 rail passengers were injured in the USA while 191,000 bus passengers were injured. During that same time frame a total of 31,499,000 passengers in automobiles and light trucks were injured in the United States.
Federal, state and local governments continue to invest heavily in roads and bridges while statistics shows that all modes of mass transit are safer than personal automobiles. The safest mode of surface transportation is rail. During the decade (1995-2005) 31 million more passengers were injured in passenger cars and light trucks than were injured in all the air and mass transit accidents combined in the USA. (31,499,000 injuries in passenger cars and light trucks compared to 304,017 total injuries in the decade from air, rail and bus passengers combined). These statistics do not include injuries to non-passengers in the transit station or at rail crossings or airline terminals.
CONCLUSIONS
Greater investment in passenger rail and mass transit should produce greater safety per passenger mile traveled than investments in highways.
Although there has been less growth in the number of containers shipped from Canada in the last decade than those shipped from Mexico, shipping out of Canada into the USA exceeds that from Mexico. There has been a total 25% increase in trucks entering the USA (13% increase from Mexico and 12% from Canada) during the decade, yet the number of trucks entering from Canada each year far exceeds the number of trucks entering the USA from Mexico. Examining traffic flows from the USA to Mexico and Canada would give a fuller picture. Examination of the data shows that the Mexican/ Texas border is less critical to international shipping than the Canadian/USA border.
There appears to be greater need for increased investment in Texas to move people and goods within Texas than to move people and goods in and out of the Texas/Mexico border.
Greater investments should be made in rail infrastructure to link major Texas cities and trade centers. Investments in commuter rail, light rail and heavy passenger can minimize the need for highway expansion. Commuter rail between cities and light rail for inner city passenger transit service could relieve highway congestion, assist non-air quality attainment areas improving air quality, while reducing deaths and injuries per passenger mile traveled.
The cost per passenger mile traveled on mass transit has risen less rapidly than the cost per passenger mile traveled in personal automobiles and light trucks during the past decade. Without adding “surplus toll revenue” to fares to pay for toll road corridors, the cost per mile traveled by automobile has escalated rapidly during the past decade. Investment in efficient passenger rail can improve air quality, reduce the number of injuries and fatalities per passenger mile traveled in the USA, and help the economy by slowing the rate of inflation caused by transportation costs.
Faith Chatham is a retired policy analyst/ newspaper woman, who edits and publishes DFW REGIONAL CONCERNED CITIZENS, The Arlington Texan, Grassroots News U Can Use, Texas Rail and People, Power, Profit – Healthcare & Insurance. A graduate of The University of Texas at Arlington, she studied in a the UTA School of Business, Graduate School of Political Science, UTA Urban Institute and Center for Post Soviet and European Studies. She has researched policy at the Hoover Institute of War and Peace and in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Republics..
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