Chapter 8. Transportation
Lead-in
1 Is transportation a vital aspect in tourism?
2 What are the advantages of traveling by railway?
3 How do people usually travel when they go abroad?
Discussion
Look at the photos and enumerate as many kinds of transport as you can. Try to point out all advantages and disadvantages of each way of traveling.
The Ximen station, one of the stations of Metro Taipei. The Mumbai-Pune Expressway in India.
A Cessna 177 propeller-driven general aviation aircraft. Acela Express, an American high-
speed passenger train.
Text 1. Tourism and transportation
Study the vocabulary and the text and do the tasks given below.
Vocabulary
1 essential – неотъемлемый, необходимый
2 regardless of – не обращая внимания; невзирая на; не считаясь с
3 freight – груз, фрахт
4 tiny – крошечный, очень маленький
5 scheduled – запланированный, предусмотренный графиком
6 route – маршрут, дорога, путь
7 convenience – удобство, пригодность
8 apparent – видимый, очевидный, явный
9 depreciation – снижение стоимости, обесценивание
10 to expand – развивать(ся), увеличивать(ся)
11 purpose – цель
12 rather than – скорее . . . , чем . . .
13 to convert – преобразовывать, превращать
14 ferry – перевоз
15 to ply – курсировать, маневрировать, лавировать
Being in a different place from one's usual residence is an essential feature of tourism. This means that transportation companies are one vital aspect in the total tourist industry, regardless of what other business (such as carrying freight) they may undertake. Without the modern high-speed forms of transportation that are available to large numbers of people, tourism would be possible only for a tiny fraction of the population.
During the 19th Century, railroads spread across Europe, North America, and many other parts of the world. They formed the first successful system of mass transportation, carrying crowds of people to such English seaside resorts as Brighton, Margate, and Blackpool. The tourists on Thomas Cook's first organized tour in 1841 traveled by railroad.
Steamships were developed at about the same time as railroads, but during the first half of the last century, they were used for the most part on inland waterways. In the second half of the century, steamships that could cover longer distances were developed. By 1900, they were carrying passengers and freight on all the oceans of the world. Historically, the North Atlantic route between western Europe and North America has been the most important. In the period between the two world wars, steamships made scheduled crossings between New York and either Southampton or Cherbourg in only five days.
Unfortunately for those people who prefer leisurely travel, both railroads and steamships have lost much of their business in the past twenty years. The automobile has replaced the railroad for most local travel, especially in the United States, where the only remaining route that offers adequate passenger service is between New York and Washington. Passenger train service is better in Europe than in the United States, but it has been cut sharply on many routes. The New Tokaido Line between Tokyo and Osaka in Japan is one of the few successful passenger services to be operated in recent times.
The automobile offers convenience. The traveler can depart from his own home and arrive at his destination without transferring baggage or having to cope with any of the other difficulties that would ordinarily confront him. The apparent costs of a trip by automobile are also lower, especially for family groups, although the actual costs, including such hidden items as depreciation (a lowering or falling in value), may be greater than realized. A very large percentage of domestic tourism now takes advantage of the automobile for transportation. In Europe, where the distance from one national boundary to another may be very short, automobiles are also used extensively for international journeys.
For long-distance travel, the airplane has replaced the railroad and the ship as the principal carrier. The airplane has become so common that we often fail to realize what a recent development in transportation it really is. The first transatlantic passenger flights were made only a few years before World War II began in 1939. Frequent service came into being only after the war, and it was not until jets were introduced in the 1950s that passenger capacity began to expand to its present dimensions.
The railroads have suffered on short-distance routes as well as on long-distance routes. Motor buses, or coaches as they are called in England, have replaced railroad passenger service on many local routes. Most small towns in the United States are served only by bus.
Regularly scheduled steamship passenger service has disappeared from almost all transoceanic routes. Ships still play an important part in tourism, however, for the purpose of cruising. A cruise is a voyage by ship that is made for pleasure rather than to arrive quickly at a fixed destination. The cruise ship acts as the hotel for the passengers as well as their means of transportation. When the tourists reach a port, they are usually conducted on one-day excursions, but return to the ship to eat and to sleep. A majority of cruise ships operate in the "warm seas," the Caribbean and the Mediterranean. Wider-ranging cruises-around-the-world, for example, or even into Antarctic waters off the tip of South America-have been offered for the more adventurous. Many of the liners that once sailed on transatlantic or transpacific routes have been converted for cruising, but they are often unable to operate economically on cruise routes. Smaller and lighter ships that are especially designed for cruising have been built in recent years.
Ships play another part in modern tourism as car ferries. Particularly in Europe, the tourist who wants to have his car with him on a trip can take advantage of car ferries across the English Channel or the Strait of Gibraltar. Car ferries even ply across large bodies of water such as the North Sea between England or Scotland and Scandinavia. The city of Dover on the English Channel now handles the largest volume of passenger traffic of any port in the United Kingdom primarily because of car ferry services.
Text work
1. Give Russian equivalents:
1 an essential feature of tourism
2 carrying freight
3 a tiny fraction of the population
4 inland waterways
5 to cover longer distances
6 scheduled crossings
7 apparent costs of a trip
8 for the purpose of cruising
9 one-day excursions
10 to ply across large bodies of water
2. Find synonyms to the following words in the text above:
1 home
2 method
3 in spite of
4 accessible
5 portion
6 corresponding
7 goal
8 gratuity
9 daring
10 to cope
3. Find antonyms to the following words:
1 slow
2 tremendous
3 obvious
4 appreciation
5 indefinite
4. Match the given words with definitions:
1) Transportation a) a large sea-going vessel
2) Population b) the act of carrying or the state of being carried from one place to another
3) Passenger c) the total number of inhabitants of any town or country
4) Boundary d) a person who travels in a public vehicle, ship
5) Ship e) a line that marks the end or limit a dividing line
5. Read and translate the following group of words derived from one root:
1 To confront – confrontation – confrontational
2 To introduce – introduction – introductory
3 To operate – operation – operative – operator
6. Answer the questions, using the information from the text:
1 How can you prove that transportation companies are one vital aspect in the tourist industry?
2 What was the reason for development of transportation?
3 In what part of the world was the most development of railroads?
4 What is the most convenient way of transportations?
5 Are there any new methods of organization?
6 What voyage would you like to undertake?
7 Will you organize the route yourself or will you apply for a tourist agency?
8 What type of transport would you choose?
Text 2. Railways
Study the text and find the information about the construction of a train. Discuss it
with your partner.
Transport or transportation is the movement of people and goods from one place to another. The term is derived from the Latin trans ("across") and portare ("to carry"). Industries which have the business of providing equipment, actual transport, transport of people or goods and services used in transport of goods or people make up a large broad and important sector of most national economies, and are collectively referred to as transport industries.
Rail transport is the transport of passengers and goods along railways or railroads. A typical railway (or railroad) track consists of two parallel steel rails, generally anchored perpendicular to beams (termed sleepers or ties) of timber, concrete, or steel to maintain a consistent distance apart, or gauge. The rails and perpendicular beams are usually then placed on a foundation made of concrete or compressed earth and gravel in a bed of ballast to prevent the track from buckling (bending out of its original configuration) as the ground settles over time beneath and under the weight of the vehicles passing above. The vehicles traveling on the rails are arranged in a train; a series of individual powered or unpowered vehicles linked together, displaying markers. These vehicles (referred to, in general, as cars, carriages or wagons) move with much less friction than on rubber tires on a paved road, and the locomotive that pulls the train tends to use energy far more efficiently as a result.
In rail transport, a train consists of rail vehicles that move along guides to transport freight or passengers from one place to another. The guideway usually consists of conventional rail tracks, but might also be monorail or maglev. Propulsion for the train is provided by a separate locomotive, or from individual motors in self-propelled multiple units. Most trains are powered by diesel engines or by electricity supplied by trackside systems. Historically the steam engine was the dominant form of locomotive power through the mid-20th century, but other sources of power (such as horses, rope or wire, gravity, pneumatics, or gas turbines) are possible.
Rail transport is an energy-efficient and capital-intensive means of mechanised land transport and is a component of logistics. Along with various engineered components, rails constitute a large part of the permanent way. They provide smooth and hard surfaces on which the wheels of the train can roll with a minimum of friction. As an example, a typical modern wagon can hold up to 125 tons of freight on two four-wheel trucks (100 tons in UK). The contact area between each wheel and the rail is tiny, a strip no more than a few millimetres wide, which minimizes friction. In addition, the track distributes the weight of the train evenly, allowing significantly greater loads per axle / wheel than in road transport, leading to less wear and tear on the permanent way. This can save energy compared with other forms of transportation, such as road transport, which depends on the friction between rubber tires and the road. Trains also have a small frontal area in relation to the load they are carrying, which cuts down on forward air resistance and thus energy usage, although this does not necessarily reduce the effects of side winds.
Due to these various benefits, rail transport is a major form of public transport in many countries. In Asia, for example, many millions use trains as regular transport in India, China, South Korea and Japan. It is also widespread in European countries. By comparison, intercity rail transport in the United States is relatively scarce outside the Northeast Corridor, although a number of major U.S. cities have heavily-used, local rail-based passenger transport systems or light rail or commuter rail operations.