Transport and Communication
Transport and its modes
Choose the best mode for different goods.
Resources, factories and markets are rarely in the same place. Iron ore comes from one region, coal from another, and the steel is sold everywhere. Transport links them all, and so makes trade and economic life possible.
Transport carries people and goods over land, water and air, and through pipelines. A transport network is made of nodes (towns, junctions, ports) joined by links (roads, rail lines, routes).
Each mode suits a different kind of load:
- Ocean shipping: the cheapest way to move large international freight over long distances.
- Railways: bulky goods (coal, ore, grain) over long distances within a country.
- Roads: short distances and door-to-door delivery.
- Air: light, valuable or perishable goods, and passengers in a hurry.
In a well-managed system, the modes complement each other: goods may travel by ship to a port, by rail inland, and by truck to the shop.
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