United States Department of Transportation
[PDF-6.94 MB]
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Abstract:The East Coast Marine Highway Initiative partnership, led by the New Bedford Harbor Development Commission, sponsored a study to craft strategies for the development of financially viable Marine Highway services along the M-95 Marine Highway Corridor. Those services are intended to provide freight shippers with alternatives to truck and rail transportation.
Operational, utilization, and cost parameters for nine potential East Coast Marine Highway services were developed for the study using cargo routing data from the Federal Highways Administration’s (FHWA) Freight Analysis Framework (FAF3). Based on the estimated average cost per load, four of the nine potential services were selected for further assessment of viability. Those services were: a short-haul loop linking New England and Mid-Atlantic ports, with a focus on New Bedford and Baltimore; two long-haul East Coast routes linking New York or Delaware River markets with Port Canaveral and Miami, FL; and a “pendulum” serving both short and long-haul markets, linking New England, Delaware River/Chesapeake Bay, and Southeast ports.
Analysis of the profit and loss summaries created for each of the four service options found that the identified M-95 services face market, operational, and regulatory challenges to becoming financially self-sustaining. However, the study found that there are service characteristics that would increase the likelihood of a service becoming self-sustaining, including: 1) Encompass a wide geographic scope (e.g. East and Gulf Coast); 2) Transport heavier weight and/or hazardous cargos that garner higher rates for existing transport modes; 3) Provide service between a maximum of three ports; and, 4) Utilize right-sized vessels, such as a potential dual-use vessel.
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