TRANSPORTATION PLAN MORE THAN ROADS

Local officials Tuesday praised a Missouri transportation plan drafted this year with emphasis on developing "intermodal" transportation.

The officials discussed the plan at a Missouri Highway and Transportation Department hearing at the Drury Lodge. About 50 people attended.

Several speakers praised the report's recommendation that all facets of transportation aviation, rail, river and pipeline and not just highways, be included in the state's total transportation plan.

Allan Maki Jr., executive director of the Southeast Missouri Regional Port in Scott City, said that too often highway development supplants total transportation needs in the state.

"Whenever I think of the MHTD, I usually think of capital M,H and D, with a small `t,'" Maki said. "What can be done to make that a capital `T?'"

He suggested that an "I" for "intermodal" be added before the "T" in the department's initials because of the importance of all facets of transportation in transporting goods.

Maki said the port has the unique advantage of access to all five modes of transportation within a five-mile radius. They include three rail lines, the Texas Eastern Transmission Co., pipeline, the Mississippi River, Interstate 55, and the Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport. He said continued emphasis on the port's development conforms well with the new state emphasis on total transportation needs.

He said 560 million tons of products are moved annually on inland waterways, including 220 million tons in the upper Mississippi River basin.

"If you were to put that into tractor-trailers, you would have a line, bumper to bumper, 40,000 miles long," he said. "That's the amount of traffic that's not on I-55 and other state roads, causing wear and tear and costing money."

Maki said river transport is more efficient than rail and truck transport. On the average, a modern towboat will move one ton of freight 400 miles on a gallon of fuel compared to 200 miles by rail and 58 miles by truck, he said.

Maki said economic development efforts are best served when all modes of transportation work together to move goods.

Wayne Muri, highway department chief engineer, said Maki's comments were "timely" because the federal government now has shifted its national transportation priorities from exclusively highway development to all modes of transportation.

"Yes, we need highways," Muri said. "But we can have the best highways in the world and you're not going to be able to compete for jobs and business unless the other modes of transportation are there as well."

Muri said the MHTD faces a dilemma due to Missouri's low fuel-tax rate. He said low tax revenues have resulted in a 10-year backlog of $6.5 billion worth of highway projects. He said the state doesn't know if the cache of highway projects should be abandoned in favor of new rail, river and aviation projects.

Cape Girardeau Airport Manager Mark Seesing also lauded the report's emphasis on intermodal transportation.

He said the state puts very little emphasis on aviation and Missouri airports are "lagging behind" other states. Seesing said about 200,000 people are employed in aviation in the state.

Bill Miller, St. Francois County commissioner, said that although the various methods of transportation are important to economic development in the state, each should be self-sufficient in terms of funding.

"It's very important that each of the methods of transportation be able to finance itself," Miller said. "We have to be very careful on the use of highway funds. The tax money for highways should be used for highway funding.

"Maybe one reason it's so cheap to transport by river is because they aren't paying their share" of taxes.

Muri said there's a national trend to fund public transit with fuel-tax revenue. "It's on the table," he said. "I don't know how it's going to shake out, but it's going to be an issue in Missouri."

Miller said regardless of the need for public transportation fuel taxes should be earmarked only for highways. He compared the issue to state funding for the arts.

"It's nice to have a symphony orchestra but who's going to pay for it, the people who go?" he asked. "Now a rock band will go out and pay for itself."

Other officials said the greatest need in Missouri public transportation is to improve cooperation between the various agencies that provide services.

Ellie Knight of the Scott County Transit System said there is a growing need for public transportation in Southeast Missouri. She said transit here will be impossible if state funding criteria for rural Missouri is the same as it is for metropolitan areas.

Knight said rural transportation is more expensive because of the sparse population and long travel distances. She said there is duplication of services between agencies providing public transportation.

She suggested that one agency per county receive funding for buses and vans and other agencies share the vehicles.

"There are a lot of buses out there that aren't in use," Knight said. "That's a waste of money, and I'm a taxpayer and think we ought to get the most for our tax dollars."

But Mel Sundermeyer of the MHTD said it's nearly impossible to get the kind of cooperation needed to coordinate a single agency handling all the vehicles for a county.

Bill Osburn, executive director of Southeast Missouri Transportation, also stressed the importance of coordinated public transportation efforts. He said school and church bus fleets also could be included in transit programs.