Executive Director of the Interstate 95 Corridor Coalition

George Schoener is executive director of the Interstate 95 Corridor Coalition, an alliance of transportation agencies, toll authorities, and related organizations, including public safety, from Maine to Florida. The coalition’s goal is to enhance transportation mobility, safety, and efficiency of travel for passenger and freight traffic operating within the I-95 corridor.

Before joining the coalition in 2006, Schoener served 33 years with the Federal Highway Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation, holding various policy, planning, and operations positions – including deputy assistant secretary for transportation policy under former DOT Secretary Norman Mineta.

Question:

From a transportation policy perspective, what value do you see for intermodal projects such as Norfolk Southern’s Crescent Corridor?

Answer:

The I-95 Corridor Coalition works with the member agencies to identify critical transportation bottlenecks and make recommendations on multimodal and intermodal improvements to address these bottlenecks.

The coalition’s efforts to promote a multi-modal system with strong intermodal connections is a recognition that the demands on the transportation system are so great – and future projections are showing it increasing even more – that you have to look at all modes of transportation to deal efficiently and effectively with passenger and freight traffic. In this context, intermodal projects like the Crescent Corridor are extremely important.

Obviously, rail is a key mode of transportation, both from a freight and passenger standpoint. For purposes of providing economic growth within a carbon-constrained environment, you have to look at all modes, including rail and marine transportation.

An exemplary aspect of what Norfolk Southern has done with the Crescent Corridor is getting the support of the public sector, and working cooperatively with public agencies. Identifying both the public and private benefits to investing in freight rail improvements is extremely important. As a result, public-private cooperation is necessary in determining where it makes sense for investing public resources in private freight rail improvements.

The Crescent Corridor primarily benefits the movement of freight along the I-81 corridor, but there are benefits to the I-95 corridor. The coalition recently completed a major initiative to identify the most critical rail bottlenecks in the Mid-Atlantic corridor. This effort, known as the Mid-Atlantic Rail Operations Phase II, is an update of an earlier look at rail bottlenecks in the corridor. NS was a key partner working on this study and elements from the Crescent Corridor are included in the recommended set of improvement projects to address the rail bottlenecks.