Appendix B Amplifying Questions
The following questions indicate the type of
information that the U.S. delegation is interested in
obtaining during our visit. We have organized the
questions from the perspective of the professional
responsibilities of the individuals we would like
to talk to. In addition, we have listed primary
questions, or questions we want to focus on during
our visit, and secondary questions, or questions
we would like to discuss if time permits or to
obtain answers from other sources.
National Transportation Policy
Officials
Primary Questions
- Please briefly describe the relationship among
the central government, provincial government,
local government, and private freight operators
as it relates to the movement of freight. Who
owns and operates what part of the nation's
freight transportation system? What does the
national government regulate with respect to
freight transportation (for example, vehicle
requirements, pricing, etc.)? What is expected
to be funded and operated by the government?
By private companies?
- Is there a national freight policy on transportation's
role in economic development, mobility,
and system investment? If so, what are the
specific elements of this policy that relate
to international trade and investment in the
nation's transportation system? What does
the policy say about the relative role and
investment in harbors and seaports, railroads,
highways, and inland water infrastructure?
How are national decisions made on which
mode or intermodal facilities will receive
investment (for example, investing in highway
versus rail, or one port versus another)?
In what agency are these decisions made?
Who is involved? How does the government
provide for an integrated transport system
in its decisionmaking process?
- What are the most important economic and
transportation factors influencing transportation
system investment decisions? What performance
measures are considered when making
investment decisions (for example, reduce travel
time, increase travel time reliability, reduce
transportation cost, and create new jobs and
economic opportunity in underserved parts of
China)? Do you collect data on the performance
of China's transportation system? If so, what
data are collected?
- How does China's transportation system
accommodate freight and passenger traffic?
Do they use the same infrastructure? Which
takes priority in investment and operations?
How is the decision made to invest in one
type of transportation project (for example, for
passenger movement) versus another that will
provide greater benefit to freight movement?
- How are trade and transportation policy
coordinated? How is China's national
transportation policy linked to a national
energy policy, and what role does the freight
sector play in this relationship?
- To what extent are public-private partnerships
and partnering agreements used to fund
transportation infrastructure, particularly with
financial equity arrangements? To what extent
is private sector input included in determining
what transportation investments are made?
- What are the most challenging issues China faces
on the movement of freight? What do you think
will be the most challenging issues in the future
(for example, 10 years from now)?
- How are environmental considerations
(for example, air quality and water quality)
addressed when transportation investments
are made? Similarly, how are community
concerns (for example, urban development and land use) addressed when such investments
are made?
Secondary Questions
- Is there a widespread understanding of the
importance of freight transportation and support
for major freight infrastructure projects at all
levels of government?
- From a pricing standpoint, how competitive is
truck compared with rail and river transport?
Does the government play a role in determining
these prices or is the market deregulated?
- When investments are made, do the calculations
provide estimates of the cost to maintain in the
future?
- What other factors (such as the 2008 Summer
Olympics in Beijing) are driving the nation's
transportation policy and investment strategies?
- So that you may best export goods to U.S.
customers, what changes in U.S. infrastructure
would you like to see occur? What level of
Chinese investment in U.S. transportation
infrastructure do you foresee?
- Are certain revenue sources dedicated exclusively
to transportation at the national, provincial, or
local levels? If so, please describe. Does the
national government have a dedicated capital
budget for major transportation investments or
are investments by the government treated as
part of the general budget?
National Transportation Planning and
Engineering Officials
Primary Questions
- For China's highway network:
- Please describe China's national highway
investment plan. What steps are being taken to
improve China's road network (for example,
new highways serving major ports)?
- Do you separate local and passenger traffic
from freight traffic to and from your ports?
- Have you or are you planning to develop lanes
or highways dedicated exclusively to truck
traffic? If so, are they for port connectors,
bypasses to urban congestion, or longer
segments of the highway system?
- How do you determine truck size and weight
limits to protect your road infrastructure
investment? How do you enforce those
limits?
- What are the key challenges facing the
movement of freight by highway?
- When investments are made, do the
calculations provide estimates of the
cost to maintain in the future?
- For China's rail network:
- Please describe China's national rail investment
plan. Is there a policy to attain a certain share of
freight movement by rail?
- What steps are being taken to improve China's
rail network (for example, investing in rail lines
to allow double stacking of containers or
separating passenger and freight rail lines)?
- What rail investments are being made to
improve rail access to your export-import
ports?
- What percentage of your total rail freight traffic
is intermodal (that is, uses containers)?
- Will your new rail lines be completely grade
separated?
- When investments are made, do the
calculations provide estimates of the cost
to maintain in the future?
- What are the key challenges facing the
movement of freight by rail?
- For China's inland water system:
- Please describe China's national inland water
system investment plan. Is there a policy to
attain a certain share of freight movement by
water? What steps are being taken to improve
the nation's inland water network (for example,
investing in inland intermodal ports or improving
river navigation)? How important is your
inland water system for both container and bulk
freight movement in the future?
- What inland water investments are being made
to improve water transport access to your
export and import ports?
- Do you see coastal shipping (that is, from one
Chinese port to another) as an important
element of your future freight transportation
system?
- When investments are made, do the calculations
provide estimates of the cost to maintain
in the future?
- What are the key challenges facing the
movement of freight by river and canal?
- Who is responsible for maintaining navigation
channels and how it is being funded?
- How long does it take to move a major freight
infrastructure investment from the original
proposal to completion? What are the major
planning and project development steps
followed in this process?
- How do you balance investment in access
corridor versus intermodal terminal needs?
Line-haul versus distribution systems?
Urban versus rural regional needs?
Secondary Questions
- Do you have a national database that describes
the flow of freight on the different modes of
transportation? What kind of national freight data
does this database include? At what level of
geographic detail do you collect data–national,
provincial, local? Are data required from private
operators of port terminals and other freight
carriers?
- How do you link information on port traffic
to decisions on investment in landside
transportation?
- Are there opportunities for sharing data on freight
traffic between the United States and China that
would benefit both?
- What types of new technologies are being
considered for the movement of freight (for
example, magnetically levitating (maglev)
trains, innovative port handling systems, etc.)?
- Do you use a national freight transport model to
predict future freight flows? If so, what kind of
modeling tool do you use?
- To what extent are vehicles standardized in the
country? For example, are all heavy trucks
designed to the same standard and weight
limitations? Rail cars? Barges? Do you have
hours-of-service regulations for truck drivers?
Do truck size and weight standards affect
distribution center activity?
- Can you provide examples in which investment
has been made in the nation's freight system to
minimize or eliminate the need to transfer freight
from one mode of transportation to another?
- What projections of future growth are you using
for freight volumes and passenger traffic?
To what degree are you separating domestic and
international movements? For international trade,
how are export-versus-import considerations
taken into account? To what extent are your
projections broken out geographically, international
(global versus regional) versus domestic
perspectives? How are these projections used in
transportation investment decisions?
Provincial, Municipal, and Port
Government Officials
Primary Questions
- What are the most important economic and
transportation factors influencing transportation
system investment decisions in your jurisdiction?
What performance measures are considered
when making investment decisions (for example,
reduce travel time, increase travel time reliability,
reduce transportation cost, and create new jobs
and economic opportunity in underserved parts
of your jurisdiction)?
- Do you have a policy or plan that relates to
transportation's role in economic development,
mobility, and transportation system investment?
If so, how is freight movement included in this
policy? What does the policy or plan say about
the relative role and investment in harbors and
seaports, railroads, highways, and inland water
infrastructure? How are decisions made on
which freight facilities will receive investment?
How does your agency provide for an integrated
transport system perspective in its decisionmaking
process?
- Is your transportation system designed to
accommodate both freight and passenger
traffic? Do they use the same infrastructure?
Which takes priority in investment and operations?
How is the decision made to invest in one
type of transportation project (for example, for
passenger movement) versus another that will
provide greater benefit to freight movement?
- How are environmental considerations (for
example, air quality and water quality) considered
when transportation investments are made? Similarly, how are community concerns (for
example, urban development and land use)
considered when such investments are made?
To what extent is port development integrated
into the community's development plan?
- How are provincial, municipal, and port freight
transportation projects funded? To what extent
are public-private partnerships and partnering
agreements being used to fund transportation
infrastructure, particularly with financial equity
arrangements? To what extent is private sector
input included in determining what transportation
investments are made?
- What are the most challenging issues your
jurisdiction or government faces on the
movement of freight? What do you think will
be the most challenging issues in the future
(for example, 10 years from now)?
Secondary Questions
- What types of projects are you considering to
improve land access to your port? For example,
are you building new port access roads?
New barge facilities?
- Is there a widespread understanding of the
importance of freight transportation and support
for major freight infrastructure projects among
officials in your jurisdiction?
- For port officials, how do you link information on
port traffic and expected movements to decisions
on investment in landside transportation?
- How long does it take to move a major freight
infrastructure investment from the original
proposal to completion? What are the major
planning and project development steps
followed in this process?
Freight Carriers, Terminal Operators,
and Shippers
Primary Questions
- Generally, what is the role of foreign investment
in intermodal freight facilities? Ownership?
Construction? Operations? For a new intermodal
freight terminal or facility or a major expansion of an existing one, who has general responsibility
for and pays for the following:
- Planning?
- Design and construction?
- Operations?
If government funds are used to support these
activities, are the funds dedicated solely to that
purpose?
- What are the underlying ownership arrangements
for the transportation modes that serve
intermodal facilities (rail, trucking, barges, etc.)?
The intermodal facility itself? The surrounding
land? The individual equipment components
(chassis, etc.)?
- In the siting of freight intermodal terminals or
other freight-related facilities, to what degree
are national, provincial, or municipal land use
planning objectives taken into account? How
are projects linked to the plans and activities of
surrounding communities? Similarly, how are
environmental concerns addressed in building
and expanding facilities? What is the process
for identifying and remediating any adverse
environmental and community impacts that
would be produced by the facility?
- What are the key factors that drive intermodal
facility capacity design? How is freight
"surge" accommodated? Has there been
any consideration of using departure control
strategies to minimize congestion at the port?
To what extent do security concerns affect
facility productivity?
- To what extent are you included in the decision-making
process on changes to landside access,
both rail and highway, for the terminals you
operate?
- What expectations are you under to operate
your facilities 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to
maximize use of the existing infrastructure?
Secondary Questions
- What is the transport mode split in freight moving
to this facility (that is, what percentage arrives by
inland water, rail, or highway)? In your opinion,
what are the key factors in the decision to access
your facility by each access mode? In other words, why does some freight come by train and
other by truck?
- To what extent is freight demand being directed
or modified though the application of user
charges (fees or tolls)? Are such charges
limited to those applied to transport carriers
(for example, tolls for trucks), or are they also
being imposed on users of the intermodal
facility (for example, a per container fee)?
- How would differences in labor rules and
expectations, safety, and security procedures
account for differences in productivity at
different intermodal facilities?
- What kind of a benefit-cost analysis is done to
determine whether the facility is justified?
- What are the major benefits associated with
investment in this intermodal facility? Access
to labor? Better access and handling capacity to
final markets? Improved financial performance?
Minimized shipper costs? Enhanced freight
handling productivity?
- What performance measures are used to monitor
the performance of the intermodal facility (for
example, productivity measures, delay, etc.)?
How are data collected in support of these
performance measures? How are reliability,
travel time, throughput, cost, or environmental
impacts measured and considered?
- To what extent has automated data collection
been designed into terminal operations?
What freight movement or vehicle tracking
capabilities are available? If there are such
systems, how widely are they used?