Text 35 Modern Transportation Systems

Transportation system is a facility consisting of the means and equipment necessary for the movement of passengers or goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, rail, road, water, cable, pipeline, and space. The overall functioning is provided by interrelated parts of any transportation system. They are infrastructure, vehicles, and operations.

Transport infrastructure consists of the fixed installations necessary for transport. It includes roads, railways, airways, waterways, canals and pipelines as well as terminals such as airports, railway stations, bus stations, warehouses, trucking terminals, refueling depots, and seaports. Terminals may be used both for interchange of passengers and cargo and for maintenance.

Vehicles travelling on these networks may comprise automobiles, bicycles, buses, trains, trucks, people, helicopters, and aircraft.

Operations deal with the way the vehicles are operated, and the procedures set for this purpose including financing, legalities and policies. In the transport industry, operations and ownership of infrastructure can be either public or private, depending on the country and mode.

Passenger transport may be public, where operators provide scheduled services, or private. Freight transport has become focused on containerization, although bulk transport is used for large volumes of durable items. Transport plays an important part in economic growth and globalization, but most types cause air pollution and use large amounts of land. While it is heavily subsidized by governments, good planning of transport is essential to make traffic flow.

Modern transportation and communication infrastructure plays a significant role in the socioeconomic development of a country. In the current context of globalisation and market economy, there is a critical need for evolving a developed transport and communication system that should be able to integrate countries into one international transport and communication network.

Questions:

1. What is a transportation system?

2. What modes of transport are there?

3. How is the overall functioning of a transport system provided?

4. What does transport infrastructure consist of?

5. Can terminals be used for interchange of passengers and cargo or for maintenance?

6. What are the vehicles that travel on the transport networks?

7. Operations deal with the way the vehicles are operated, don’t they?

8. Can ownership of infrastructure be private?

9. What is essential to make traffic flow?

10.What is necessary to do about transport systems in the context of globalization and market economy?