RECORD OF MEETING

FREIGHT TASK FORCE

 

DATE/TIME/PLACE:  Monday, April 25, 1994; 2 PM; NYSDOT Region 1, Albany

 

ATTENDANCE:  Tom Magliocca, (Port), Steve Iachetta (Airport), John Newman, John Lemmerman (NYSDOT Commercial Transport), Chungchin Chen (CDRPC), Dick Carlson and Ted Thompson (NYSDOT), Gus Lapham (HVAA), Evan Eisenhandler (CP Rail), Kristina Younger and Kathy Ophardt (CDTC)

 

DISCUSSION SUMMARY:  Record of last meeting unchanged.

Status Reports:  1)  NYS Motor Truck Association letter and response reviewed.  Kristina to follow up with contacts.  2)  Saratoga Springs truck route designation:  Article reviewed and other examples from around the region (Selkirk, Watervliet/Colonie, Round Lake) cited.  Reiterated that identifying these areas of residential/truck conflicts is part of overall work program.  3)  Highway Deficiency Mapping:  New data from NYSDOT Region 1 received -- needs to be reviewed.  4) Rail inventory:  Discussion of difficulties with federal databases and the cooperation from the railroads in updating the inventory.  Should have a base map by the May meeting.  Influence of railroad maintenance practices, addition of ballast, and weather on vertical clearances were discussed.  Double stack routes in the region were noted.  The potential influence of new technologies on the need to address clearance issues was also outlined.

 

Survey of Goods Movement:  Revised draft outline, mailing list, survey, and cover letter were included in mailout.  Various wording changes to the survey and cover letter were offered and accepted, as reflected in the final survey form.  The mailing list was considered to be representative and the cooperation in putting it together noted.  It was decided to do a pretest of 50 "likely" respondents before sending out all 475 surveys.  This will be done in time for a report back to the May meeting to make any modifications.

 

Planning and Investment Principles and Performance Measures:  No changes to revised principles.  Performance Measures:  Revisions to the core measures regarding Transportation Service recommended that would make them more generic and thus more applicable to freight.  The concept of dependability, or vulnerability to disruption is important to goods movement and should be captured somehow.  The Task Force liked the risk assessment concept introduced by the Transit Futures Task Force and would like to see it incorporated into the core measures.  An economic health indicator should be using words - not numbers - and only used where a direct linkage between transportation and the economy exists.

 

Supplemental Measures require further discussion.  Performance objectives were briefly discussed.  With the rewording of the Transportation System Core Measures, more of them are relevant to goods movement and should be included.  A discussion of mode shifts for freight focused on the need for there to be a connection to a problem for such shifts to occur.  More discussion is needed on objectives.

 

 

ACTION ITEMS:

*    NEXT MEETING:  Monday, May 23, 2 - 5 PM, CDTC

*    Agenda to include rail deficiency mapping, pretest survey results, further discussion on performance measures and performance objectives.

*    John Lemmerman to bring Intermodal Management System inventory back to the Task Force when it is closer to completion.

*          Railroad meeting with the bicycle advocates to discuss overall "Rails-to-Trails" development in the Capital District scheduled for 5/18.