The Eastern Seaboard, with the exception of the St. Lawrence/Great Lakes
system, offers no significant navigable river system. The upper Great Lakes (Erie,
Huron, Michigan and Superior) offer good navigation depths, but navigation is
limited by the waterways between the lakes and by ice in winter. Still, they
handled about 157 million tons of dry-bulk cargo in 2007. Further, access to the
Atlantic is limited to the depth and lock size of the St. Lawrence Seaway
(transiting 32 million tons of cargo), which is closed for a few months during the
winter. The St. Lawrence enables a vessel to go deep inland, but maritime vessels
can go up to Montreal, which is essentially at the same longitude as New York.
The St. Lawrence/Great Lakes system, in spite of carrying substantial bulk volumes,
remains a market that is not serviced by intermodal transportation. The
Eastern Seaboard, however, has, in addition, a complex but underused coastal
transport system. The setting of intermodal barge services is also an initiative not
without challenges. For instance, the New York/Albany barge service, which
started in April 2003, was suspended in February 2006 due to the lack of funding,
which corresponded to the end of subsidies provided to help jump-start the service.