Transportation Systems And The Transportation System
The United States transportation system encompass numerous "interconnected modes of
transportation, including aviation, freight and passenger rail, highway, public transit, and pipelines
and moves billions of passengers and millions of tons of goods every annually" (Government
Accountability Office, 2014). The Transportation Systems Sector consists of seven key subsectors,
or modes: Aviation, Highway Infrastructure and Motor Carrier, Maritime Transportation System,
Mass Transit and Passenger Rail, Pipeline Systems, Freight Rail, and Postal and Shipping
(Department of Homeland Security, n. d). This transportation system is critical for the growth and
prosperity of societies, to the nation's supply chain, and as such is an important national security
asset (Obama, 2012). Good transportation network will help to improve Americans' cost of living
through expansion of business opportunities, keeping jobs here in the United States, making prices
of goods and services cheaper for the American families (The National Economic Council and the
President's Council of Economic Advisers, 2014). Surface transportation consists of the highways,
transit systems, railways, and waterways that comprise the intermodal transportation network in the
United States (American Association of Port Authorities, n. d).
According to the Department of Homeland Security (2010) "Freight Rail consists of seven major
carriers, hundreds of smaller railroads, over 140,000 miles of active railroad, over 1.3
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