Freight Movements in the Upper Midwest Corridor

This paper describes freight movements in the Upper Midwest. The study was undertaken as a part of a multi-state freight study conducted by a team led by the Midwestern Region University Transportation Center at the University of Wisconsin. Using various secondary data sets, the analyses provide a picture of how goods move to, from and within the region to better understand the freight transportation needs in the corridor. The paper discusses key findings from the research including: the role of the Upper Midwest region with respect to the overall movements of freight in the U.S., characteristics of "market segments" for freight defined by origin-destination and commodity types, the factors that create market segments, impact of cross-border traffic, and implications for planning.