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Transport Terminals

Transport terminals are facilities where passengers and freight are assembled or dispersed during transportation. Terminals are central and intermediate locations that ensure continuity of flows within transportation systems. They are critical points of transfer between different modes of transportation, such as buses delivering people to airports or trucks hauling freight to rail terminals. As obligatory points of passage capitalizing on their geographical location, transport terminals are created by the centrality or intermediacy of commercial flows.

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140 views3 pages

Transport Terminals

Transport terminals are facilities where passengers and freight are assembled or dispersed during transportation. Terminals are central and intermediate locations that ensure continuity of flows within transportation systems. They are critical points of transfer between different modes of transportation, such as buses delivering people to airports or trucks hauling freight to rail terminals. As obligatory points of passage capitalizing on their geographical location, transport terminals are created by the centrality or intermediacy of commercial flows.

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kim jeon
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6.

1 – The Function of Transport Terminals


Authors:  Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue and Dr. Brian Slack
A terminal is a facility where passengers and freight are assembled or dispersed during
transportation.

1. Transport Terminals
Passengers and freight cannot travel individually but in groups or batches. Passengers
must go to bus terminals and airports first, where they are “assembled” into busloads or
planeloads to reach their final destinations where they are dispersed. Freight must be
consolidated at a distribution center, a port, or a rail yard before onward shipment.
Terminals may also be points of interchange involving the same transport mode. Thus, a
passenger wishing to travel by train from Paris to Rotterdam may have to change trains in
Brussels, or an air passenger wishing to fly between Montreal and Los Angeles may have
to change planes in Toronto. Terminals may also be points of interchange between
different modes of transportation and their respective networks. Goods being shipped
from the American Mid-West to the Ruhr in Germany may travel by rail from Cincinnati
to the port of New York, put on a ship to Rotterdam, and then placed on a barge for
delivery to Duisburg. Transport terminals, therefore, are central and intermediate
locations for the mobility of passengers and freight.

Terminal. Any location where freight and passengers either originate, terminate, or are
handled in the transportation process. Terminals are central and intermediate locations in
the mobility of passengers and freight. They often require specific facilities and
equipment to accommodate the traffic they handle.

Terminals may be points of interchange within the same modal system, which ensures
continuity of the flows. This is particularly the case for air and port operations with hubs
connecting parts of the network. Terminals, however, are also critical points of
transfer between modes. Buses and cars deliver people to airports, trucks haul freight to
rail terminals, and rail brings freight to docks for loading on ships. One core attribute of
transport terminals is their convergence function. They are obligatory points of passage,
capitalizing on their geographical location, which is generally intermediate to
commercial flows. Thus, transport terminals are either created by the centrality or the
intermediacy of their respective locations.

The importance of a transport terminal is often a function of its size. Large transport
terminals, particularly ports and airports, confer the status of gateway or hub to their
location since they become obligatory points of transit between different segments of the
global transport system. Containerization has favored the emergence of a hierarchy of
terminals fulfilling different functions and added value, from the mega-gateway
coordinating the flows of a large market area to a small rail yard or truck depot servicing
a local market. The same observation applies to passenger transport, where a specific
hierarchy of terminals is evident. There are large hub airports located in global cities,
connecting continents down to the small local airport with limited daily services to a few
destinations.

Operational Differences between Passengers and Freight Transportation


Gateways and Hubs

Freight Terminal Hierarchy and Added Value

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