2003 was a very successful year for the Eastern Border Transportation Coalition. The priority work plan items were to improve a number of administrative processes, update the organization's by-laws, develop an appropriate working relationship with some other border related organizations and establish the future direction of EBTC activities, and all of these objectives were met.

EBTC started the year with a new Managing Consultant to carry out the duties of the Executive Director position. Irv Rubin, who had been the Executive Director since EBTC's inception, decided to retire, and after calling for applicants for the position, EBTC signed a one year renewable contract with Walter Steeves. Walter had previously been associated with EBTC as a Board member from New Brunswick DOT from 1994 until his retirement in 2002.

In addition to setting up an office and getting familiar with current border issues, the Managing Consultant visited Washington in January to meet with FHWA officials as well as to make contact with other agencies involved with or interested in border activities *. In March, he attended a borders & corridors conference in Minneapolis hosted by the Canadian-American Border Trade Alliance (Can/Am BTA), participated in their discussions and gave an overview of EBTC to the conference. At that time, he had a meeting with the President of Can/Am BTA to discuss the ongoing relationship between the two organizations. This meeting was later followed up by a meeting of the EBTC Board of Directors with the Can/Am President in Burlington, Vermont. It was agreed that EBTC and Can/Am BTA would support each other and cooperate where possible to help achieve their common goal of effective and efficient border crossings; however it was decided not to form any formal alliance and EBTC decided not to become a member of Can/Am or its committees.

EBTC completed, and distributed to all members, an extensive contacts data base which will be updated on a regular basis *. This will be useful in future activities of the Coalition. Also, with the assistance of all Board members, the Managing Consultant assembled a complete set of EBTC meeting minutes dating back to the beginning of EBTC in 1993. This will provide a recorded history of the Coalition, copies of which will be kept on file with the Secretary as well as in the Managing Consultant's office.

EBTC, on behalf of the Transportation Border Working Group, organized and held a data workshop in Newton, Massachusetts at the end of April *. The workshop was designed to enhance the capability of data analysts to understand and manipulate transborder data files. In particular, the objective was to enable data analysts and transportation planners to maximize the usage of the significant amount of data assembled in the 1999 EBTC Transborder Trucking Study, as well as any data which is or may become available from subsequent studies.

In May, the Managing Consultant attended the NASTO annual conference in Saratoga Springs, using the opportunity to meet with New York State Department of Transportation officials in Albany. He also met with Maine DOT officials in Augusta en route. Subsequently, he visited Ottawa where he met with Transport Canada officials* to ensure that they continue to be aware of EBTC's goals and objectives. He also met with representatives from the trucking industry to get their viewpoint of border issues and problem areas *. The Canadian Trucking Alliance stated their appreciation of EBTC's efforts in promoting efficient and effective border crossings.

EBTC members continued their significant participation in the activities of the Transportation Border Working Group, the federally co-chaired committee which consults on and discusses border issues between Canada and the United States. It is noteworthy that EBTC members have made up a majority of the State and Provincial representation at TBWG meetings, as well as taking the responsibility in chairing sub-committees and organizing events. In addition to the Data Workshop discussed above, EBTC members were largely responsible for organizing the TBWG-sponsored Data Conference held in Port Huron, Michigan in October *. This conference was arranged to assess the particular needs for border data, which elements are a priority, and how this data can be gathered and distributed. The output from this conference will be used as a guide for future TBWG activity on this issue.

Also, New York State DOT coordinated the development of a Border Infrastructure Compendium for TBWG, which identifies the scope and estimated cost of planned and/or identified improvements at or in support of the international crossings between the U.S. and Canada.

In July, EBTC sent a letter to FHWA and Transport Canada seeking clarification from FHWA on legislation passed in the U.S. House of Representatives with respect to the establishment of integrated border inspection areas. Specifically, the letter was seeking their comments on potential ramifications to commercial vehicle and passenger travel flows as well as to border infrastructure projects now being planned or considered. To date, no substantive response has been received.

In September and October, the Managing Consultant accompanied respective EBTC Board Members on visits to border crossings on the Michigan-Ontario border and the Quebec border with New York and Vermont *. During these visits they toured facilities and met with border infrastructure operators as well as border agency representatives at Sault Ste. Marie, Port Huron/Sarnia, Detroit/Windsor, Lacolle and Phillipsburg to get a better understanding of current projects and issues.

EBTC completed a Scope of Work document for a study of rail flows across the Canada-U.S. border *. The major objective of this study is to provide EBTC and its member agencies with a comprehensive picture of rail freight t raffic moving across the border. A proposal from Cambridge Systematics has been accepted and the study will be carried out during the first half of 2004. Combined with the recently completed Truck Freight Crossing the Canada-U.S. Border study, this work should provide the EBTC with a holistic view of the land trade between the two countries.

In order to improve communications, an additional internet web domain name, www.Easternbordertransportationcoalition.com , has been registered and has been linked to the existing website at www.ebtc.info. , and the site has been updated *.

EBTC held two Board of Director's meetings during the year; one in Burlington, Vermont in June, and the annual meeting in Montreal, Quebec in December, in addition to a number of telephone conference call meetings *. The EBTC by-laws were reviewed and updated and have now been approved as amended *. At the Montreal meeting, the Board spent considerable time discussing the future direction of EBTC and developing a work plan for 2004, which includes the creation of a list of priority policy issues on which EBTC will concentrate in 2004. In Montreal, the EBTC co-chairs held a private meeting with the TBWG co-chairs to discuss TBWG work plan progress.