When the Transportation Research Board convened its Marine Transportation System conference at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Washington, the opening conversation went straight to the heart of the industry: what are the safety and security challenges that keep maritime leaders up at night?
A seat on the opening panel
Transportation Institute Vice President of Government Affairs Sara Fuentes helped answer that question as a panelist on the conference’s opening session, a living room style discussion of federal and industry perspectives on marine safety and security. She shared the stage with a remarkable lineup: the Acting Vice Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, the President and CEO of Moran Towing, the President and CEO of Cruise Lines International Association, and the Director of NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey.
That mix of voices, spanning government, commercial operators, passenger shipping, and the trade association community, reflects how maritime safety actually works. No single agency or company secures the marine transportation system alone. It takes constant coordination between the regulators who set the standards, the operators who live with them at sea, and the advocates who help translate between the two.
The bigger conversation
Across three days, the conference dug into the resilience of the marine transportation system: how ports and waterways prepare for disruption, how emergency response works across agencies, and how the industry keeps people and cargo safe as vessels and operations evolve. These are exactly the questions Transportation Institute engages with every day on behalf of the American maritime industry.
Since 1967, TI has worked to ensure that the people who operate America’s fleet have a voice in the policy decisions that shape their work. Being part of conversations like this one, alongside the Coast Guard, NOAA, and industry leaders, is how that work gets done.
View the full conference program from the Transportation Research Board: https://trb.secure-platform.com/a/page/marinetransport/Schedule