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TRANSPORT

Part 1

An efficient transport system is vital to the economy. Without it the economy would completely break down. A businessman must always take into account cost, capacity, speed and convenience of transport.

Transport is used to bring food and raw materials into the country, to distribute goods throughout the commercial network, and also to carry exports to other countries.

There are three main types of transport: land, sea and air.

Land transport includes road and rail transport.

Road transport is the most convenient type of transport, and most businessmen use it. The development of road networks and motorways has increased the speed and efficiency of road transport, but the costs are high because of fuel prices, motor taxation, insurance charges, labour costs, maintenance, etc. The capacity of motor vehicles is limited by the size of the vehicle and the suitability of the road surface. In general terms, small cars and vans are used for short distance work and large vehicles with large capacities are used for long distance work.

There are more than 40000 miles of railway track in Great Britain and more than 10000 locomotives. Trains are used to carry both passengers and freight and each year British trains handle more than 250 million tons of freight.

Before the Second World War, the British railways were mostly owned by four private railway companies. Their names were Great Western, Southern, London north Eastern and London, Midland and Scottish. These private railway companies were bought out by the British government in 1947. The state owns and controls them. They now make up British rail.

Heavy loads can be carried very cheaply by rail. The ability of the train to pull heavy loads up steep hills is the main capacity-limiting factor, but generally the trains are able to carry extremely heavy loads. Train is not a very convenient method of transport because the goods have to be on-loaded at the start of the journey and off-loaded at the end of it; and then taken (usually by road) to the final destination. Recently their has been an increasing use of containers on the railways, which can be used to transfer the goods quickly from rail to road or from road to rail. This saves a lot of on-loading and off-loading time.

Rail is generally cheaper to use than the other types of transport, especially if heavy loads are required to be carried long distances without having to worry about speed. It is therefore quite cheap to send coal, iron ore, cement or other bulky goods long distances by rail. The railways will take these goods slowly on their journey, using any locomotives that may become available.

The speed of passenger trains makes them a very convenient inter-city method of transport for businessmen. The railways are also the chief carriers of mail in Great Britain.

Words:

capacity мощность

network сеть

charge налог, сбор

labour работа

maintenance эксплуатационные расходы

vehicle машина

freight фрахт, груз

load груз

steep крутой

destination место назначения

bulky большой, объемистый