UPSC Geography Transport and Communication / परिवहन एवं संचार NCERT Extracts - World Transport and Communication

Rail and Road Transport

• The revolution in transport came about only after the invention of the steam engine in the 18^th
• Perhaps the first public railway line was opened in 1825 between Stockton and Darlington in northern England
• The world's total motorable road length is only about 15 million km, of which North America accounts for 33 per cent.
• Europe has one of the most dense rail networks in the world.
• Belgium has the highest density of 1 km of railway for every 6.5 sq.kms area.
• Moscow is the most important rail head with major lines radiating to different Darts of the country's vast geographical area.
• Australia has about 40,000 km of railways, of which 25 per cent are found in New South Wales alone.
• In South America, the rail network is the most dense in two regions, namely the Pampas of Argentina and the coffee growing region of Brazil which together account for 40 per cent of South America's total route length.
• Only Chile, among the remaining countries has a considerable route length linking coastal centres with the mining sites in the interior.
• Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela have short single-track rail-lines from ports to the interior with no inter-connecting links.
• There is only one trans-continental rail route linking Buenos Aires (Argentina) with Valparaiso (Chile) across the Andes Mountains through the Uspallatta Pass located at a height of 3,900 m.
• Africa continent, despite being the second largest, has only 40,000 km of railways with South Africa alone accounting for 18,000 km due to the concentration of gold, diamond and copper mining activities.

Trans-Continental Railways

• Trans-Continental railways run across the continent and link its two ends.
• Trans-Siberian Railway
• This is a trans-siberian Railways major rail route of Russia 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.
• It is the most important route in Asia and the longest (9,332 km) double-tracked and electrified trans-continental railway in the world.
• It has helped in opening up its Asian region to West European markets.
• It runs across the Ural Mountains Ob and Yenisei rivers Chita is an important agro- centre and Irkutsk, a fur centre.

Trans-Canadian Railways

• This 7,050 km long rail-line in Canada runs from Halifax in the east to Vancouver on the Pacific Coast passing through Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg and Calgary.
• It was constructed in 1886, initially as part of an agreement to make British Columbia on the west coast join the Federation of States.
• Later on, it gained economic significance because it connected the Quebec-Montreal Industrial Region with the wheat belt of the Prairie Region and the Coniferous Forest region in the north.
• Thus each of these regions became complementary to the other.
• A loop line from Winnipeg to Thunder Bay (Lake Superior) connects this rail-line with one of the important waterways of the world.
• This line is the economic artery of Canada. Wheat and meat are the important exports on this route.

The Union and Pacific Railway

• This rail-line connects New York on the Atlantic Coast to San Francisco on the Pacific Coast passing through Cleveland, Chicago, Omaha, Evans, Ogden and Sacramento.
• The most valuable exports on this route are ores, grain, paper, chemicals and machinery.

The Australian Trans-Continental Railway

• This rail-line runs west-east across the southern part of the continent from Perth on the west coast, to Sydney on the east coast.
• Passing through Kalgoorlie, Broken Hill and Port Augusta.

The Orient Express

• This line runs from Paris to Istanbul passing through Strasbourg, Munich, Vienna, Budapest and Belgrade.
• The journey time from London to Istanbul by this Express is now reduced to 96 hours as against 10 days by the sea-route.
• The chief exports on this rail-route are cheese, bacon, oats, wine, fruits, and machinery.

Water Transport

• One of the great advantages of water transportation is that it does not require route construction.
• The oceans are linked with each other and are negotiable with ships of various sizes.
• All that is needed is to provide port facilities at the two ends.
• It is much cheaper because the friction of water is far less than that of land.
• The energy cost of water transportation is lower. Water transportation is divided into sea routes and inland waterways.

The Northern Atlantic Sea Route

• This links North-eastern U.S.A. and Northwestern Europe, the two industrially developed regions of the world.
• The foreign trade over this route is greater than that of the rest of the world combined.
• One fourth of the world's foreign trade moves on this route.
• It is, therefore, the busiest in the world and otherwise, called the Big Trunk Route. Both the coasts have highly advanced ports and harbour facilities.

The Mediterranean-Indian Ocean Sea Route

• This sea route passes through the heart of the Old World and serves more countries and people than any other route.
• Port Said, Aden, Mumbai, Colombo and Singapore are some of the important ports on this route.
• The construction of Suez canal has greatly reduced the distance and time as compared to the earlier route through the Cape of Good Hope.

The Cape of Good Hope Sea Route

• This sea route is another important one across the Atlantic Ocean which connects West European and West African countries with Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay in South America.
• The traffic is far less on this route because of the limited development and population in South America and Africa.
• Only southeastern Brazil and Plata estuary and parts of South Africa have large- scale industries.
• There is also little traffic on the route between Rio de Janeiro and Cape Town because both South America and Africa have similar products and resources.

The North Pacific Sea Route

• This sea route links the ports on the west-coast of North America with those of Asia.
• These are Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles on the
• American side and Yokohama, Kobe, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Manila and Singapore on the Asian side.

The South Pacific Sea Route

• This sea route connects Western Europe and North America with Australia, New Zealand and the scattered Pacific islands via the Panama Canal.
• This route is also used for reaching Hong Kong, Philippines and Indonesia.
• The distance covered between Panama and Sydney is 12,000 km. Honolulu is an important port on this route.

The Suez Canal

• This canal had been 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 gives Europe a new gateway to the Indian Ocean and reduces direct sea-route distance between Liverpool and Colombo compared to the Cape of Good Hope route.
• It is a sea-level canal without locks which is about 160 km and 11 to 15m deep.
• About 100 ships travel daily and each ship takes 10-12 hours to cross this canal.
• The tolls are so heavy that some find it cheaper to go by the longer Cape Route whenever the consequent delay is not important.
• A railway follows the canal to Suez, and from Ismailia there is a branch line to Cairo.
• A navigable fresh-water canal from the Nile also joins the Suez Canal in Ismailia to supply fresh-water to Port Said and Suez.

The Panama Canal

• This canal connects the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west.
• It has been constructed across the Panama Isthmus between Panama City and Colon by the U.S. government which purchased 8 km of area on either side and named it the Canal Zone.
• The Canal is about 72 km long and involves a very deep cutting for a length of 12 km. It has a six lock system and ships cross the different levels (26 m up and down) through these locks before entering the Gulf of Panama.
• It shortens the distance between New York and San Francisco by 13,000 km by sea.
• Likewise the distance between Western Europe and the West-coast of U.S.A.; and North-eastern and Central U.S.A. and East and South-east Asia is shortened.
• The economic significance of this Canal is relatively less than that of the Suez. However, it is vital to the economies of Latin America.

The Rhine Waterways

• The Rhine flows through Germany and the Netherlands.
• It is navigable for 700 km from Rotterdam, at its mouth in the Netherlands to Basel in Switzerland.
• Ocean-going vessels can reach up to Cologne. The Ruhr river joins the Rhine from the east. It flows through a rich coalfield and the whole basin has become a prosperous manufacturing area.
• Dusseldorf is the Rhine port for this region. Huge tonnage moves along the stretch south of the Ruhr.                                
• This waterway is the world's most heavily used.
• Each year more than 20,000 ocean-going ships and 2,00,000 inland vessels exchange their cargoes.
• It connects the industrial areas of Switzerland, Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands with the North Atlantic Sea Route.

The Danube Waterway

• This important inland waterway serves Eastern Europe. The Danube river rises in the Black Forest and flows eastwards through many countries.
• It is navigable up to Tauma Severin. The chief export items are wheat, maize, timber, and machinery.

The Volga Waterway

• Russia has a large number of developed waterways, of which the Volga is one of the most important.
• It provides a navigable waterway of 11,200 km and drains into the Caspian Sea.
• The Volga-Moscow Canal connects it with the Moscow region and the Volga-Don Canal with the Black Sea.

The Great Lakes: St. Lawrence Seaway

• The Great Lakes of North America Superior, Huron Erie and Ontario are connected by Soo Canal and Welland Canal to form an inland waterway.
• The estuary of St. Lawrence River, along with the Great Lakes, forms a unique commercial waterway in the northern part of North America.
• The ports on this route like Duluth and Buffalo are equipped with all facilities of ocean ports.
• As such large oceangoing vessels are able to navigate up the river deep inside the continent to Montreal.
• But here goods have to be trans-shipped to smaller vessels due to the presence of rapids.
• Canals have been constructed up to 3.5 m deep to avoid these.

The Mississippi Waterways

• The Mississippi-Ohio waterway connects the interior part of U.S.A. with the Gulf of Mexico in the south. Large steamers can go through this route up to Minneapolis.

Air Transport

• At present no place in the world is more than 35 hours away.
• S.A. alone accounts for 60 per cent of the airways of the world.
• S.A. there is a dense network of oil pipelines from the producing areas to the consuming areas.
• Big Inch is one such famous pipeline, which carries petroleum from the oil wells of the Gulf of Mexico to the North-eastern States.
• India has also made great strides in satellite development.
• Aryabhatt was launched on 19 April, 1979, Bhaskar-I in 1979 and Rohini in 1980.
• On 18 June, 1981, APPLE (Arian Passenger Payload Experiment) was launched through Arian rocket.
• Bhaskar, Challenger and INSAT I-B have made longdistance communication, television and radio very effective.

Some Important Facts

• Horses are used as a draught animal even in the Western countries.
• Dogs and reindeer are used in North America, North Europe and Siberia to draw sledges over snow-covered ground.
• Mules are preferred in the mountainous regions; while camels are used for caravan movement in deserts. In India, bullocks are used for pulling carts.