Intermodal passenger transport

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One of the challenges of intermodal transport is changing between modes. Despite proximity, transfers can be difficult. One instance is this bus stop inside London (Heathrow) Airport, England. The aircraft is a South African Airways Boeing 747
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One of the challenges of intermodal transport is changing between modes. Despite proximity, transfers can be difficult. One instance is this bus stop inside London (Heathrow) Airport, England. The aircraft is a South African Airways Boeing 747

Intermodal freight transportation utilizes more than one mode of transportation (road, rail, sea, air, etc.) to move goods between an origin and destination. Intermodal passenger transport applies the same concept to moving people. Some modes of transportation have always been intermodal; for example, most major airports have extensive facilities for automobile parking and have good rail or bus connections to the cities nearby. Urban bus systems generally serve train and subway stations and often extend to the local airport. A major goal of modern intermodal passenger transport, at least in developed countries, is to reduce dependence on the automobile as the major mode of ground transportation and increase use of public transport.

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[edit] History

Passenger transport has always been intermodal. People switched from carriages to ferries at the edge of a river too deep to ford. In the 19th century, people who lived inland switched from train to ship for overseas voyages. Hoboken Terminal in Hoboken, New Jersey was built to let commuters to New York City from New Jersey switch to ferries to cross the Hudson River in order to get to Manhattan. A massive ferry slip, now in ruins, was incorporated into the terminal building. Later, when a subway was build through tunnels under the Hudson, now called the PATH, a station stop was added to Hoboken Terminal. More recently, the New Jersey Transit's Hudson-Bergen Light Rail system has included a stop there, but it is a relatively long walk from the terminal building. Ferry service has recently been revived, but passengers must exit the terminal and walk across the pier to the more modest ferry slip.

[edit] Park and Ride

Main article: Park and ride

Intermodal planners try to encourage automobile commuters to make much of their journey by public transport. One of the more successful ways of doing this is to provide parking places in the suburbs near major highways where commuter can leave their cars for the day and take a train or bus into an urban downtown area.

[edit] Train to the plane

Main article: Train-to-the-plane

Another increasingly popular tool for intermodalism is to extend subway and rail service to major urban airports. This provides travelers with an often less expensive and more reliable way to get to their flights than driving, and contending with full up parking, or taking taxis and getting caught in traffic jams on the way to the airport. Many airports now have some mass transit link, including

At the Hong Kong International Airport, ferry services to various piers in the Pearl River Delta is provided. Passengers from Guangdong can use these piers to take a flight at the Airport, without passing through customs and immigration control, effectively like having a transit from one flight to another. The Airport is well-connected with expressways and an Airport Express train service. A seaport and logistics facilities will be added in the near future.

[edit] Auto trains

Some passenger rail systems offer services that allow travelers to bring their automobiles with them:

  • In Finland, VR (website) has a popular automobile-carrying service on their night trains between the south and the north. VR has recently bought 15 new auto carriers for €8 million, and transports 35,000 automobiles a year.
  • In France, the SNCF's Auto/train service (website) provides extensive automobile-carrying routes throughout France, also connecting with neighboring countries. In the past, all of the Auto/trains also carried sleeping cars, but many no longer allow passengers to travel on the same train as their automobiles. Typically, passengers drop off their car anytime during the day, then use the TGV or other service to reach their destination, where they can pick up the car anytime the following day. The hub of the Auto/train route system is in Paris at the Gare de Bercy. Three other cities (Avignon, Narbonne, and Fréjus-St-Raphaël) also have specialized stations for the car-carrying service; in other cities the service is operated from a normal passenger facility. The automobiles are carried in open railcars, and for this reason the SNCF offers passengers a free car wash in the arrival city.
  • In Germany, DB AutoZug (website) has services from sixteen stations to cities in France, Italy, Austria, and Croatia. These are very popular, with 200,000 automobiles transported yearly and half a million passengers. In 2005, DB AutoZug celebrated 75 years of automobile-and-person-carrying trains.

[edit] Automobiles

Taxicabs and Rental cars continue to play a major role in providing door to door service between Airport or Train station and other points of travel throughout urban, suburban, and rural communities.

[edit] Bicycles

Bicycles are often a good way for people to get to a public transportation station, but they need safe place to leave the bike when they get to the station. Some public transportation systems have provisions for cyclists to take their bicycles on board trains and buses, often at off peak times. See utility cycling

[edit] Transfer facilities

In recent years, an increasing emphasis has been placed on designing facilities that make such transfers easier and more seamless. These are intended to help passengers move from one mode (or form) of transportation to another. An intermodal station may service air, rail, and highway transportation for example.

In some cases, facilities were merged or transferred into a new facility, as at the William F. Walsh Regional Transportation Center in Syracuse, New York or South Station in Boston, Massachusetts. In other cases new facilities, such as the Alewife Station In Cambridge, Massachusetts were built from the start to emphasize intermodalism.

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