Office of Naval Research - National Transportation Library

Section 2.0 Existing SSS Practices and OperationsThe Maritime Administration (MARAD) has defined the existing SSS corridors and carriersin the U.S. as part of the agency’s description of the Marine Highway (MH) Program. Notethat the scope of this study goes beyond the MARAD MH program. MARAD has pointedout that the MH program is for containers, trailers and rail cars only, and that no bulk cargoesare included. MARAD has also pointed out that the scope of the MH program also extends tothe offshore foreign trades, such as Canada and Mexico. In this study, the scope of SSSoperations includes present and potential future bulk movements of cargo. 11Section 2-1 describes the corridors defines by MARAD. Section 2-2 describes the carrierscurrently serving the SSS markets.2-1 Current SSS Service CorridorsMARAD has identified about 40 marine highway coastal, intracoastal, and inland freightservices and 500 marine highway passenger services throughout the United States, includingservices provided to and from Canada, as depicted in Figure 4. 12Figure 4 – SSS Corridors Identified by MARADSource: http://www.marad.dot.gov11 Mr. James Pugh, MARAD, in comments sent on September 22, 2009, has pointed out that “Certainly, thereare bulk movements in short sea services, but they are not part of the Marine Highways program.”12 shttp://www.marad.dot.gov/documents/Marine_Highway_Program_brochure_(final.pdfONR SSS Final Report 14