OTPI: Oregon Transportation Policy Institute

Terms

Amtrak - a government owned corporation created in 1971 that provides passenger rail services to the US. History

Bullet Trains - high speed passenger trains that travel significantly faster than normal trains. Speeds qualifying as "high speed" differs, e.g. 90+ mph in America and 124+ mph in Europe. France's high speed train system, TGV, travel at 200 mph. Also called Shinkansen, after high speed trains in Japan.

Bus Rapid Transit - a form of public transportation that takes advantage of bus only lanes and other measures to decrease travel times.

Cato Institute - non profit public policy research institute

Class I, II, and III Railroads/Rail Carriers- a rail road or carrier classified by revenue; Class I has the largest revenue and Class III has the smallest.

Freight - movements of goods

Mag-Lev Trains - passenger train that is suspended off the ground and propelled by electromagnetic force. Trains can currently reach up to 360 mph. A few commericially operated maglev trains exist, but costs are still prohibitive for widespread use.

Multi-modal Freight - a freight system that uses multpile modes of transportation for a given piece of freight. For example, if a container is brought to Oregon from the east coast on a ship, brought from the port to the destination city by rail, and brought to its final destination by a truck, it has traveled by multi-modal freight. The benefits are that any given part of the journey can be taken on the most efficient available mode of transportation, but there are increased costs associated with switching a container from one type of transportation to another.

Public Transportation - a form of transportation of passengers that is available to any person who wants to use it, usually for a fee. Can include buses, passenger heavy rail, light rail, and other forms of transportation

SmartWay 2.0 - the EPA's new system modeling systems for emission reduction and energy efficiency, created in conjunction with the freight transportation industry. Replaces FLEET standards.

Ton- Mile - Usually refers to the amount of fuel taken to move one ton of freight one mile.

Transportation - the movement of people and goods by land, sea, and air.

Tri-Met - Portland Metro Regional Transportation System