Transport and

Communications
Unit Objectives
• By the end of the unit you will be able to:
• Identify the types of transport and
communications
• Improvements to accessibility and
connectivity
• The effects of the Shrinking World and
Globalisation
Types of Transport
• Modern transport is multi-modal
• Air
• Planes / Shuttles
• Land
• Road/ Rail / Animal
• Sea
• Ships
Means of Communication
• postage,
• telephone,
• telegraph,
• radio,
• wireless,
• fax,
• internet
Starter Activity
look at the picture and write down in the
spaces the different modes of transport
you can identify.
Developments in Transport
• Improvements in Mode of Transport
• Over time with technology, transport has become
faster and safer.
• 9000 years ago, key transport modes were animals and
simple rafts/canoes
• 7500 years ago, the invention of the wheel made carts
possible
• In the 1760s, the steam engine was invented
• Boats, trains, cars.
• In the 1860s, airships were flown
• In 1885, the combustion engine made the first cars.
• In 1903, man first had flight
9000 years ago
7500 years ago
1769
1869
1885
1903
Present date
Technological gains in
transport

1.Improvements in Speed
2.Improvements in Passenger
Transport
Improvements in Speed
• Modern transport able to travel at higher speeds.
• Time taken to cover distances is reduced.
• Eg, to travel 100km, the following transport modes will
take the following time
• Donkey (10km/hr) - 10 hours
• Horse (20km/hr) - 5 hours
• Car/Bus (50km/hr) - 2 hours
• Train (100km/hr) - 1 hour
• Bullet Train (200km/hr) - 30 minutes
• Plane (300km/hr) - 20 minutes
Improvements in Passenger
Transport
• Better comfort
• Larger planes/ships
• More comfortable rides
• Greater safety
• Lower accident rates
Think for a moment

My new super flying car

can get you to wherever
you want in half the
time of any other mode
of transport on earth!

Minor issue is it only

land 20% of the time.
The rest of the time it
will crash.
Accessibility
• The ease with which you can reach a
location .
• A place that is easily reached is said to
be accessible.
• A place that is not easily reached is said
to be inaccessible.
 THE UTILITY AND
IMPORTANCE OF RAILWAYS:

 It is the important source of passengers as well as good transportation from the different
areas of the country. It is also the cheapest means of transportation in Pakistan.

 Millions of tons of goods are supplied from Karachi to far off places of country through
railways.
 Almost all the necessities of life e.g. petrol, wheat rice pulses are transported through
railway to avoid shortage problem.

 It is an important source of transportation for army movements for exercises and plays
pivotal role during emergencies like war.

 Material, machinery, iron, cement for development projects are supplied through railways.

 It is an important source of employment.

 It is playing an important role for the production of national income ambits

disbursement1..
 PERFORMANCE OF RAILWAYS:

The overall performance of the railways is very low due to the

following reasons:

1. Low working efficiency of the employees

2. Pakistan railway has not been able to clear the huge backlog of
replacement and outdated machinery.
3. The volume of passenger’s traffic for short distances has
considerable declined.
4. Railway has to operate certain branch rotes, which are
uneconomical.
5. Powerful engines are being used for handling light passenger
trains even on main lines that are not economical.
 PROBLEMS OF RAILWAYS:
1. The trains are generally late and passengers are finding inconvenience.
Pakistan’s Railway is operating on single track system while double track
system is limited.
2. There is an act shortage of locomotives and the rolling stock in possession of
railways is odd and outdated.
3. Railway organization is over staffed, which is a financial burden and effects
position of railways.
4. Pilferage of goods in transit has become a common feature. Due to dishonesty
railways has to pay compensation in thousands.
5. Corruption and misutilisation of funds have also affected the development
projects.
6. The wages paid to workers are low. Majority of workers form hand to mouth.
7. Inadequate facilities have been provided to passengers.
8. There is a shortage of funds to increase the number of locomotives, to start
development projects and to provide facilities to passengers.
 SUGGESTION/REMEDIES:

1. There should be reorganization or privatization of railways

to avoid heavy losses.
2. For easy and quick transportation there should be double track system.
3. Efficient and hardworking employees should be selected because our
present employees are generally inefficient as the selection is made on kinship
basis.
4. To attract technical persons and qualified people high wages should be
offered.
5. There should be control on corruption misutilisation of funds and leakage of
revenue.
 THE NETWORK OF PAKISTAN RAILWAYS:
 The network of Pakistan railways comprises 7,791 route kilometers, 577
locomotives, 1901 passenger coaches and 23939 freight wagons up to end of March
2003.
 The Pakistan railways have introduced non-stop express trains in different routes
including comfortable passenger coaches. An investment of Rs. 44 billion for five
years was approved for railways sector.
 However this was included in an over-all plan for 10 years for which Rs. 109.00
billion was visualized.
 The perspective plan includes rehabilitation of rolling stock, communication system
as well as modernization of three main constituents of railways operation viz
infrastructure rolling stock and communication & freight trains, once infrastructure
over the system improved.
 The Pakistan railways have improved its services both for passengers and luggage
handling. A sign of improvement is visible from the continuous increase in the
earnings which have increased by 43.3 % during 1998-99 and 2001-02. During July –
March 2002-03, the gross earnings increased by 12.7 % over the same period last
year.
 A positive trend has also been recorded during Jul-March 2002-03 in both the
passenger traffic freight traffic by registering respectively an increase of 1.4% and
1.7%, respectively over the same period of the last year.
 Maintaining a positive growth for three successive years can be attributed to the
wide range of improvement made by the Pakistan railways in the quality o services,
timeliness, and cleanliness.
After railway, roads are the main source of
transportation because all those areas where
railway line cannot be laid down, roads are built.
Similarly in far-off places and hilly areas where
laying down of railway line is difficult, road
became the important means for transportation
and a source of contact.
Connectivity
• Connectivity refers to the degree of
interlinkages in a network.
• A place that is well connected is said
to be well-connected.
• Well-connected places are better
able to share information.
 Improvements with Transport
Infrastructure
• Roads, railways, bridges and tunnels are
infrastructure that improve transport.
• Eg, the Channel Tunnel
• Links England and France under the sea.
Communications
1.Process where information
is transferred
2.Possible to be one-way or
interactive
One-way communication
• Process to obtain information or to share
feelings with others.
• Printed materials (magazines,
newspapers, etc)
• Art work (paintings, sculptures, etc)
• Broadcast media (Television and radio
programmes)
• Internet media (Websites, Social Media,
etc)
Interactive Communication
• Process where humans communicate with
one another.
• Constantly happens over varying distances
(depending on technology available)
• Talking in person
• Telephone call / SMS
• Fb / Twitter / Weibo
Developments in
communications
• Technology has made it easier to
communicate.
• We communicate more however, the
depth of communication is decreased.
• Physical Distance has decreased but social
distance has been pushed apart.
A shrinking world
(Globalisation)
• The world is not actually shrinking
• Technology has made the time taken to
cover a certain distance become shorter
(shrinking world)
• A letter from Singapore to Los Angeles
would take 6 working days to reach it’s
destination.
• With emails, it is now almost
instantaneous .
Our essential questions
1.How has technology
helped us in our
communications?
2.How does the ‘shrinking
world’ benefit modern
man?
3.What are the various