Planning Sustainable Transport

Chapter 8

The problems

Interchanging and trans-shipment

Neither freight nor passenger journeys are completed from beginning to end by a single mode. The only exceptions are the few personal journeys made entirely on foot, while all others include changes from one mode to another. At the simplest, these may be the switch from feet to wheels at bus-stops or in car-parks, although many mode changes are far more complex, particularly those in freight transport where handling between modes is an unavoidable and very visible problem. Typically, mechanical handling equipment designed to cope with standardised unit loads is used in switching from one mode to another. Such units may then be used to carry the freight on the major, long-haul modes as well ...