Duncan looks to expand modes

It appears that Rep. Duncan (R-TN), chair of the House Panel on Freight Transportation, agrees that it is the goal of almost everyone in transportation to emphasize rail and water transportation “a bit more,”  as reported by the DC. Streets Blog.

Rep. John J. Duncan (R-TN)

Quoting the Streets Blog (August 27, 2012), “while the House is holding hearings like this one, U.S. DOT is working toward its own national freight plan with its Freight Advisory Committee, and top officials there have expressed a desire to prioritize some modes over others. “We want to keep goods movement on water as long as possible, and then on rail as long as possible and truck it for the last miles,” Deputy DOT Secretary John Porcari said in 2010.”

Streetsblog asked Rep. John Duncan, a Republican from eastern Tennessee who chairs the freight panel, if he agreed with Porcari’s modal hierarchy. “Yes,” he said. ”It’s the goal of I think almost everyone in transportation to emphasize rail and water transportation a little bit more than it’s been emphasized in the past, and I think we can do that,” he said. “Everyone on this panel is very focused on trying to balance out our transportation a little bit more than it is at this time.”

“We’re getting close to the time that we’re going to put out our report and our recommendations,” Duncan said, adding that recommendations could be enacted in future transportation bills or separate pieces of legislation. Duncan noted that the freight panel is modeled on a House Armed Services Committee Defense Acquisition Reform Panel in the Department of Defense. “Several of their recommendations were actually passed into law,” he said.