The region’s capacity to move passengers, goods, and services to national and global destinations reinforces its role as a port of entry for new immigrants and enhances its reach as a world-class city within the national and global economy.

How are we doing?

The Big Dig, now complete, provides Boston with 160 lane-miles of interstate highway, about half of it in tunnels, and better traffic flow on, and connections to, all three key interstate highways serving the region: the Massachusetts Turnpike, I-95, and I-93.  Another recently-completed project, the Route 3 North Transportation Improvement Project, improved connections between Massachusetts and New Hampshire by adding one lane of travel in both directions between Burlington and the New Hampshire border, a distance of 21 miles.

Boston’s South Station is the eighth busiest in the Amtrak passenger rail system, with 987,000 boardings and alightings in 2004.  Ridership is growing on both of Amtrak’s major Northeast Corridor routes serving Boston, with Acela ridership up 8.7% in 2004 to 2.5 million riders, and regional service up 9.5% to 6.4 million riders.  Amtrak’s Downeaster service, which runs along a 116-mile corridor between Boston’s North Station and Portland, Maine, with intermediate stops in both New Hampshire and Maine, served 250,000 passengers in 2004.

Logan Airport has been undergoing a Modernization Project, which is 90% complete and has provided new structured parking, elevated walkways connecting parking garages to terminals, and an expanded international Terminal E.  The number of passengers using Logan Airport reached 26 million in 2004, a 14% increase over 2003, and nearly back to the level reached before 9/11.  Logan Airport ranks eighth nationally in annual hours of air traffic delay. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved the creation of a new runway at Logan and in 2004, and the Massachusetts Supreme court rejected a judicial appeal by runway opponents, removing the last hurdle to construction.

While Logan airport remains responsible for the bulk of domestic passenger and cargo service and all international passenger service and air cargo in Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) has been working to advance the use of other nearby airports to reduce pressure on Logan.  Hanscom Field is managed by the Massport Authority as a regional aviation facility, whose major users are a mix of commuter/commercial air services, corporate aviation, private pilots, flight schools, some charters and light cargo.  Worcester Regional Airport, owned by the city of Worcester and operated by the Massachusetts Port Authority, currently is used for general aviation but has no scheduled airline service.

The Port of Boston provides New England with a deep-water berth and access to world ports, in addition to supporting a cruise industry in warmer months.  In 2003, Conley Terminal and Moran Terminal handled more than 1.3 million tons of general cargo, 1.5 million tons of non-fuels bulk cargo, and 12.8 million tons of bulk fuel cargos yearly.  The Black Falcon Cruise Terminal served 95 passenger ships carrying 210,000 cruise passengers in the 2003 season and “Cruiseport Boston” is now considered one of the fastest growing high-end cruise markets in the country.  The volume of cargo going through the Port of Boston increased 11% in 2004 over 2003.  The largest increase was in export tons.  The Port is facing increasing competition from deep-water ports in New York, New Jersey and Halifax, Canada, however, in part because of awkward port-to-highway rail connections for container cargo.  The port ranks sixth nationally in hours of delay.  Massport and the City of Boston are developing truck by-pass roads for East Boston, Charlestown and South Boston ports to improve highway connections.