Chapter 7 — Transport, Communication and Trade

A transport network is several places (nodes) joined together by a series of routes (links) to form a pattern.

The first public railway line was opened in 1825 between Stockton and Darlington in northern England.

The Trans-Siberian Railway runs from St. Petersburg in the west to Vladivostok on the Pacific Coast in the east, passing through Moscow, Ufa, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Chita and Khabarovsk. At 9,332 km it is the longest double-tracked and electrified trans-continental railway in the world, and it has helped open Russia's Asian region to West European markets.

It links north-eastern USA and north-western Europe — the two most industrially developed regions. One-fourth of the world's foreign trade moves on this route, making it the busiest sea route in the world.

The Suez Canal was constructed in 1869 in Egypt between Port Said in the north and Port Suez in the south, linking the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. It is about 160 km long and 11 to 15 m deep. About 100 ships travel daily and each ship takes 10–12 hours to cross.

The Panama Canal connects the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west across the Panama Isthmus. It is about 72 km long and uses a six-lock system where ships cross different levels (26 m up and down). It shortens the sea distance between New York and San Francisco by 13,000 km.

Big Inch is a famous pipeline that carries petroleum from the oil wells of the Gulf of Mexico to the north-eastern states of USA. About 17 per cent of all freight per tonne-km is carried through pipelines in USA.

There were fewer than 50 million internet users in 1995, about 400 million in 2000, over two billion in 2010, and about 5.4 billion in 2023. The percentage share of USA dropped from 66 per cent in 1995 to 25 per cent in 2005 as developing countries gained users.

Aryabhatta was launched on 19 April 1975, Bhaskar-I in 1979, and Rohini in 1980. On 19 June 1981, APPLE (Arian Passenger Payload Experiment) was launched through the Ariane rocket. Bhaskar, Challenger and INSAT I-B made long-distance communication, television and radio very effective.

Water transport does not require route construction since oceans are naturally linked. The friction of water is far less than that of land, making energy costs lower. Ocean transport is cheaper for hauling bulky material over long distances from one continent to another.

Horses are used as draught animals in western countries. Dogs and reindeer draw sledges over snow in North America, North Europe and Siberia. Mules are preferred in mountainous regions, camels for caravan movement in deserts, and bullocks pull carts in India.

Belgium has the highest railway density in Europe — 1 km of railway for every 6.5 sq km of area.

USA accounts for 60 per cent of the airways of the world. New York, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Rome, Moscow, Karachi, New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangkok, Singapore, Tokyo, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago are the major nodal points.

Optic fiber cables allow large quantities of data to be transmitted rapidly, securely, and are virtually error-free. With digitisation of information in the 1990s, telecommunications merged with computers to form integrated networks called the Internet.

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