Transport and Communication

How the world moves people, goods and messages: roads, trans-continental railways, sea routes and canals, inland waterways, air routes, pipelines, satellites and cyberspace.

Key ideas

Each mode suits different loads: roads for short trips and door delivery, railways for bulky goods over land, ships for freight between continents, airways for light valuable goods, pipelines for fluids.
A transport network joins places (nodes) by routes (links).
Trans-continental railways cross whole continents, like the Trans-Siberian (St Petersburg to Vladivostok) and Trans-Canadian (Halifax to Vancouver).
The Northern Atlantic route is the busiest sea route; the Suez Canal links the Mediterranean and Red Seas and the Panama Canal the Atlantic and Pacific.
The Rhine is the world’s busiest inland waterway; the Great Lakes–St Lawrence Seaway takes ships deep into North America.
Satellites and cyberspace make communication instant and equally cheap over any distance.

Remember

Hours saved by a canal	distance saved ÷ speed (km/h)
Days saved	distance saved ÷ km sailed per day
Panama Canal	cuts New York–San Francisco by about 13,000 km; has six locks
Network length	area × density (e.g. 0.65 km of highway per sq km), or area ÷ sq km per km of track
Key dates	first public railway, Stockton–Darlington, 1825; Suez Canal 1869; Aryabhata 1975
Pipelines	Big Inch carries petroleum; New Zealand pipes milk

Watch out

Saying the Suez Canal links the Atlantic and Pacific (that is Panama).
Sending bulky, cheap goods by air.
Dividing distance by days when the speed is given per hour.

Worked example

Suppose New York to San Francisco by sea around South America is 28,000 km. The Panama Canal cuts about 13,000 km. What is the new distance, and how many days are saved by a ship sailing 650 km a day?

Working: 28,000 − 13,000; 13,000 ÷ 650

Answer: 15,000 km; 20 days