A handful of policymakers might finally be starting to recognize the critical need for improvements to the nation's intermodal transportation infrastructure. That, at least, is the view of the University of Denver's Intermodal Transportation Institute. ITI pointed to the release of an interim report by the National Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission, which has two years in which to issue a final report to the U.S. Department of Transportation on highway and transit issues. "I am very pleased that the Commission recognized that our national infrastructure is in a physical and financial crisis, and delighted that its interim report clearly identified intermodal connectors as an important element in solving the nation's surface transportation problems," said Craig Lentzsch, a member of ITI's board of directors and the Financing Commission. The report, he noted, called for a "significant infusion" of capital to upgrade and maintain the nation's highways, transit systems and intermodal facilities. Lentzsch also called for a complete reassessment of the nation's "current, complex and tax-based approach" to the funding of surface transportation infrastructure.

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