Reference no: EM131448686

Answer to each one of the following posts in 150 word min for each one.  Treat each one individually, this is a forum conversation with each one APA references and graduate, original work is a must. Total 450 word min of content, this does not count references and such.

1)-When first thinking about this topic, the mode that comes to mind is air transport. Air carriers can easily, if space is available, move freight on passenger flights (combination services). Combination services offer an advantage in delivering time-sensitive goods over long distances to global destinations (Bowen & Rodrigue, 2017). Combination service providers tend to be reliable and on-time in their delivery as passenger carriers maintain priority over air cargo planes at the airport (Bowen & Rodrigue, 2017). Air cargo services only service cargo and operate on limited routes and locations, thus causing an increase in time the cargo is traveling the highway system to another terminal (Bowen & Rodrigue, 2017). Moving cargo on passenger trips is efficient and can be cost-effective depending upon the volume that can be shipped.

Cruise ships do not entertain combination services. Cruise ships are strictly passenger ships, while cargo and container ships are utilized to ship goods across the world's waterways. Cruise ships are limited in capacity, maximizing space for passengers, and visiting only designated vacation ports including private islands owned by the cruise companies. Adding cargo shipping would not be advantageous to a passenger cruise ship as it would result in lost passenger revenue and with limited location docking, cargo shipping would not generate enough shipping revenue.

"Passenger and freight rail are in competition for the same infrastructure, so encouraging people to ride the trains would make it more difficult to transport their goods. The end result could be a minor improvement in passenger mode share towards the railways and a significant mode shift of freight away from the railways, to the highways. (Freemark, 2011)." Passenger trains are merely passenger trains, servicing only passengers, not providing combination services. Freight rail is freight rail providing efficient shipping of bulk solid, liquid, gas, and sometimes hazardous goods long distances on established rail networks. European rail networks, utilizing high-speed light rail for passenger rail, utilize different gauge tracks for passenger rail and freight rail (Freemark, 2011). This causes an infrastructure, funding, and routing issue to provide dual systems (Freemark, 2011). However, under the FAST Act of 2015, funding would be available under the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act and the Railroad Rehabilitation & Improvement Financing programs for transit oriented projects (U.S. Department of Transportation, 2015).

Cars are meant for movement of people more than movement of cargo. Cars are limited to the amount of cargo that can be moved. Tractor-trailers are meant for moving cargo, not for moving people as passenger space is limited. While both cars and trucks utilize the highway system, they have alternate effective purposes.

Overall advantages of combining operations include sharing capital costs (rail, airlines, and ferries) and sharing maintenance costs (rail and airlines) (Comtois, Rodrigue, Slack, 2013). Overall disadvantages include locations that don't match between passenger and freight routes, demand, timing, traffic balance, reliability, operational speeds, and security screening processes ( Comtois, Rodrigue, Slack, 2013). Under the FAST Act, there are provisions focused on safe, efficient, reliable movement of freight (U.S. Department of Transportation, 2015). This includes new multimodal policies, plans, and strategies. Projects are to include pedestrian, highway, rail, ports to improve freight movements (U.S. Department of Transportation, 2015). Collaboration between all modes of transportation will become increasingly important as future projects develops.

References

Bowen, J., & Rodrigue, J.-P. (2017). Air transport. Retrieved from The geography of transport system: https://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch3en/conc3en/ch3c5en

Comtois, C.; Rodrigue, J-P; & Slack, B. (2013). The geography of transport systems (3rd ed.). New York: Routledge.

Freemark, Y. (2011, June 29). Freight as passenger rail's worst enemy - or something else. Retrieved from The transport politic: https://www.thetransportpolitic.com/2011/06/29/freight-as-passenger-rails-worst-enemy-or-something-else/

U.S. Department of Transportation. (2015, December 4). The Fixing Americas Surface Transportation Act or "FAST Act". Retrieved from Policy Initiatives: https://www.transportation.gov/fastact/

2)- The mixing of passenger and freight in various modes of transportation carry certain risks, yet can be beneficial. Efficiency is a major factor I believe in the equations used for determining if taking both passengers and freight or concentrating on one is the optimal option. I will look at the pros and cons of specializing and then carrying both.

Specializing in either passenger or freight traffic allows one to tailor their entire organizational structure to meet said demand. The railroads are an excellent example of this. While both Europe and America run both on their rails, each is prioritized one, while the other receives limited track time (Freemark, 2011). As such, cargo rules in America, moving vast quantities of good long distances while Europe speeds passengers to and fro. With the systems devoted primarily to their main business, the network enables efficiencies of scale to be realized. The airlines are another place where large operations reap dividends from fixating on one market versus the other. Those that specialize do take the other, but this "usually accounts for less than 5 percent of total revenues" (Rodrigue, 2017). The downside to this type of operation is an inability to change if the market swings. The railroads are feeling this pinch in the coal transport market as natural gas prices make coal less economical to burn (Ross, 2015). CSX has responded by shuttering lines since they were dedicated to a single type of cargo and commodity instead of multiple types.

Carrying anything you can does have its place as well. The United States military is one major organization that does this. They are adept at transporting personnel and cargo using the same aircraft to any destination they need to go (Air Force, 2015). This type of generalized transport allows flexibility in transporting whatever a customer or market forces want to the destination. By doing this, they can respond quickly where required, but on the other side of the coin, they lose out in efficiencies that dedicated organizations can generate via specialization.

As a personal example of running both pax and cargo, this brings me to one of the meanest flights I ever had. I was flying Space-A in the cavernous hold of a C-17 transport aircraft and they had the cargo pallets in the middle and the passengers in the webbing seats along the sides of the fuselage. Thus, we have a mixed flight of people and freight. About an hour into the flight, I got curious and looked at the boxes under the cargo netting. Lo and behold, it's the mail going to my base. Not only that, but I have a package for me staring back at me. For the next 6 hours, I got to look at the pallet taunted by the knowledge somebody had sent me a care package, but there was no way to access it.

Air Force. (2015, October 1). C-17 Globemaster III. Retrieved 27 March, 2017, from United States Air Force: https://www.af.mil/AboutUs/FactSheets/Display/tabid/224/Article/104523/c-17-globemaster-iii.aspx

BaseOps. (2016). Space A Travel. Retrieved 27 March, 2017, from BaseOps: https://www.baseops.net/spaceatravel

Freemark, Y. (2011, June 29). Freight as Passenger Rail's Worst Enemy - Or Something Else?. Retrieved 27 March, 2017, from The Transport Politic: https://www.thetransportpolitic.com/2011/06/29/freight-as-passenger-rails-worst-enemy-or-something-else/

Rodrigue, J., Comtois, C., & Slack, B. (2017). The Geography of Transportation System ( 4th ed). New York, NY: Routledge.

Ross, J. (2015, November 21). CSX Plans Reductions in Appalachian Coal Fields. Retrieved 27 March, 2017, from West Virginia Illustrated: https://www.wvillustrated.com/story/30324466/csx-plans-reductions-in-appalachian-coal-fields

3)- This week we have been learning about the economic impact of different transportation modes. A looming question is passengers or freight. We have seen many of the modes share freight and passengers without difficulties and yet others that separate the two. Compare and contrast the advantages and disadvantages of both philosophies.

Hello Class,

As almost anyone could see, the ability to take both passengers and freight would make for a much more efficient operation, as long as everything was going to the same place. The Air Force excels at this task. C-130s, C-17s, and C-5s all are able to carry cargo as well as passengers. The 130 and 17 utilize jump seats along the edges of the cargo bay while pallets and cargo are loaded into the center. The C-5 has a dedicated cargo space, with a second story that is for passengers only.

Commercial companies that carry both passengers and cargo are able to essentially double their sources of income. They can pick and choose what they want more or less of. There can also be some issues that come along with it. You have to match up people and items that are going to the same area. Flight weight calculations must be configured differently when there are both on a plane as opposed to one. And there is the potential for multiple headaches when something goes wrong.

I am a fan of having cargo and passengers separate. Specialize in just one, and become an expert in that field. I believe that is why so many people outside the military do that now. There is Amtrak, which only moves passengers. Then there are all of the freight railroads, which only move goods. Ships are either carry cargo, or they are cruise ships loaded with people. Commercial airlines move passengers on certain planes, and move cargo on certain planes. And there is not really a comparison for over the road. 18-wheelers and passenger buses. These all allow a company to have expertise in one thing, and they can consistently work to make that as efficient as possible.