Modes of Transportation
1. Road Transportation
- Transportation by road system is the only mode which could give maximum flexibility of service from origin to destination, to one and all.
- Various classes of vehicles such as a car, bus, truck, two-wheeler, etc. may be permitted to make use of the roads. Apart from the road vehicles, pedestrians also make use of the facilities of the road system. Road transport mode has the maximum flexibility for travel with reference to choice of route, direction, time, and speed of travel.
- Road transportation is the only mode that caters for the movement of passengers and goods independently right from the place of origin up to the destination of any trip along with the land. In other words, it is possible to provide door-to-door service only by road transport.
- The other three modes i.e., railways, waterways, and airways have to depend on transportation by road for the service to and from their respective terminals, viz., railway stations, harbours, and airports. Therefore the road network is essential to serve as the feeder system for all other modes of transportation and also to supplement them.
- Thus it is necessary to develop a well-planned road network throughout the country so as to serve both as an independent transport system and also as feeder transport for the other three modes of transport.
- The limitations of road transport are that the rate of petroleum energy consumed (for transportation of unit weight by unit distance) is higher than for transportation by railways and waterways. The rate of emission of pollutants is also higher than the other modes of transport.
- The branch of transportation engineering that deals with the planning, design, construction and maintenance of roadway facilities are termed Road Engineering or Highway Engineering.
- From the point of view of conservation of energy in the country and minimising the air pollution due to transportation, it is desirable to work out and implement a national policy on coordination between various modes of transportation. However, the implementation of such a policy will not be easy in a democratic country like India. Therefore it may be necessary to permit a healthy competition between the different modes of transportation.
2. Rail Transportation
- The concept of rail transportation is a movement of multiple wagons or a train of wagons or passenger bogies fitted with steel wheels running over two parallel steel rails of the railway track.
- The resistance to traction along the railway track for the movement of the steel wheels of the rail wagons is much lower than that along the more uneven road surface for the movement of road vehicles with rubber tyres, under identical conditions of speed and atmospheric factors.
- The energy requirement to haul unit lead through unit distance by the railway is only a fraction (one fourth to one sixth) of that required by road. Therefore the full advantage of rail transportation should be taken for the transportation of bulk goods and passengers, especially for long distance on land routes and where the railway tracks are available.
- The transportation to and from the railway stations are to be performed by road transportation. The railway tracks could serve as arteries for transportation of passengers and goods on land routes at relatively low cost and the roads could serve as a feeder system for transportation to the interior parts and to the intermediate localities between the railway stations. Therefore in order to conserve energy, an integrated rail-cum-road transport network could be advantageous in a developing country like India.
Note:
Indian Railways has one of the World’s largest railway networks in the world. Indian railways were introduced in 1853. Indian Railway network is spread over 109.221 km covering 6906 stations. Operating on three gauges 4 broad gauge (1676mm), metre gauge (1000 mm) and narrow gauge (762 and 610 mm), trains in India carry about 17.7 million passengers and 1.49 million tonnes of freight every day.
3. Water Transportation
- Transportation by water offers minimum resistance to traction and therefore needs minimum energy to haul unit load through unit distance. The amount of energy required to propel a vessel on the water is much lesser than that required on land and is far lesser than that required to keep an aircraft airborne.
- Therefore water transportation is the most energy-efficient. But, water transportation is very slow, which is the greatest disadvantage of this mode. In fact, this is the slowest among the four modes. Though some passenger traffic makes use of water transportation, the greatest user of this mode is the bulk cargo of relatively low value, mainly because of the slow speed and low transportation cost for the bulk cargo.
- A waterway is needed to operate the ships and boats on sea routes between the harbours and ports. Harbours are terminals built with components such as docks, quays, wharves, etc. The other facilities required are to provide shelter to the ships and the crews and also facilities for loading, unloading, and storage of cargo and for carrying out routine and major maintenance of the vessels. The branch of transportation engineering which deals with the planning, design, construction, and maintenance of docks and harbours is called Harbour Engineering.
- Inland water transportation is made possible along the rivers, canals, and lakes by boat and ferry service, which Operate between small ports. Inland Waterways. being of relatively shallow depth, the freight is mostly carried on barges and is hauled by towing boats.
Note:
The road and rail transport serve as the feeder system to transfer goods and passengers to and from the harbours and ports.4. Air Transportation
- Transportation by air is the fastest among the four modes. Air transport provides more comfortable and fast travel resulting in substantial savings in travel time for the passengers between the airports.
- The shipment of high-value freight on long hauls is possible in the shortest time by air transport. Unlike other modes of transport, air transport allows continuous journey over the land and water, even across inaccessible places in between two airports.
- One of the limitations is that the energy required and the overall operating expenses for air transportation are the highest in comparison to the other modes.
- Another limitation is that the operation of air transport is very much affected by weather conditions such as severe storms and thick fog.
- Airports are developed to provide facilities for the aircraft for take-off, landing, parking, and carrying out maintenance works. Some of the essential components of an airport are runway, taxiway, terminal facilities, visual aid, control, and safety system. The branch of transportation engineering which deals with the planning, design, construction, and maintenance of the airports to cater to the needs of the aircraft that are expected to make use of these airports is called Airport Engineering.
- For shorter hauls, helicopters are used and heliports are developed for their landing and take-off. Military aviation is also important to meet the defense needs of a country. The requirements of military airports could vary depending upon several other factors. Thus air tranSportation caters to the movement of passengers and freight between the airports.