New York-based transportation expert Dr. Stephen Blank thinks North America needs a transportation strategy. The trouble is we’re shooting blanks when it comes to implementation. New York-based transportation expert Dr. Stephen Blank believes that without a strategic plan for moving commodities and containers North America could soon reach a point where the inability to move freight efficiently will limit the ability of farmers and manufacturers to expand their export markets. As part of a presentation this spring to the Canola Council of Canada Blank said he did not doubt the ability of Canadian canola growers to boost production from 34.4 bushels per acre to the Council’s goal of 52 bushels per acre. But he said growers should be concerned that years of underinvestment in North America’s transportation network have not only made it difficult to keep up with routine maintenance but impossible to accommodate the growth looming on the horizon. In an interview with AJOT he was asked if North America is prepared to handle the demand for goods and foodstuffs that will soon be coming from developing countries and a growing population worldwide and his answer was a resounding: “No.” “There’s going to be no money left for strategic thinking,” he said. “What’s interesting here is the fact that people think about ships,” he said, “12,000 or 14,000 TEUs, but they really don’t think enough about the land side. If you divide 12,000 or 13,000 by 250 containers you’ve got a lot of trains. And, the guys that carry the stuff out aren’t always the guys that carry the stuff in, so we’re talking about a multiple of at least 1 1/2, he said. “And, you need space. You can’t load 12,000 or 14,000 or 18,000 containers directly off of a ship onto a train. You need a place to stack the stuff. “So when you think of the number of trains that have to get into a terminal, plus trucks, it’s just not possible. “Moreover, in most places there’s very little space – in Vancouver, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Long Beach – there’s very little space. The land has become much more valuable for condos,” Blank said. In addition to a lack of space there’ll be restricted rail capacity, huge surges in highway traffic and visits to fewer West Coast ports. In a recent blog at [url=http://www.stephenblank.info]http://www.stephenblank.info[/url], he said: “In the second decade of the 21st century, we understand that transportation infrastructure will be a critical element in shaping our competitiveness in the global arena. But it is also clear that in our national and the continental economies, North America continues to face significant transportation infrastructure deficits. We lack a vision of an efficient, sustainable and secure North American freight transportation system for the next decades and we have failed to create a mechanism to think about, not to say put in place, such a system.” Blank is also concerned that in both Canada and the U.S. the issue has shifted from building infrastructure to cutting government spending and cutting taxes. In Canada and the U.S., he said, there’s barely enough funding to fix potholes rather than think strategically. In addition, he said, if anything is done it’s going to be “shovel-ready jobs” and not looking at the big picture. “You can look at every transportation institute in North America and none of them are working on North American stuff,” he said. “We have this huge asset that should be focused on these issues and they aren’t focused at all.” Blank’s concern is that North American farmers and manufacturers will gradually lose competitiveness “right across the board.” And, while some businesses will find a way to compete, many won’t. While there are projects, such as the Asia Pacific Corridor in Western Canada that have worked and provide an example of the federal and provincial governments and industry working together on a project, Blank is concerned about the Trans Canada Highway that is still a single lane in some areas and he says the level of maintenance is dropping. Or CN Rail’s connection between the Port of Prince Rupert and the U.S Midwest that goes through Chicago and if rail traffic volumes increase significantly, Chicago will be overwhelmed and it will become “impossible” to move the containers further south. “We’re going to have to come up with something better than now exists because we’re not going to have the road or rail capacity – or even the port capacity - to meet the demand. And, for the foreseeable future we’re going to live on a knife-edge when you have large crops or cold winters or a shortage of equipment, or whatever it is that’s going to drive the thing to a crisis.” Blank said that, in reality, there’s no place in North America where knowledgeable people can sit down and think about these things across their various academic silos. “The notion of a think tank barely exists any longer,” he said, “and certainly not in this area. “For years I’ve been travelling across North America visiting universities and begging people to think about this. But I’ve been a total failure.”