Network Expansion
The co-evolution of roads, canals and ports during the industrial revolution in England reveals noticeable interdependencies among the different nodes and networks over time, based on spatial and functional proximity. Initial network developments are often done to support and complement an existing network. Then, the new network competes with the existing network by expanding geographically and topologically in ways unavailable to the prior network. As transport networks expand, existing transport infrastructures are being upgraded to cope with spatial changes. Airports and ports are being transformed, expanded or relocated. In the air transport sector, emphasis is being given to integrate airports within fully-fledged multimodal transport systems, networking air with rail and road transport. In maritime transport, networks are also being modified with increasing attention paid to the expansion of the Panama and Suez Canals, to the increasing traffic on inland waterways and to creating new inland passages between semi-enclosed or enclosed seas.
The growing competition between the sea and land corridors are not only reducing transport costs and encouraging international trade but prompting many governments to reassess their land-based connections and seek shorter transit routes. Existing land routes are also being extended. Passages through difficult terrain are being investigated with a view to create fully-fledged land-based continental connections, notably through railways. These land network expansions are driven by economic globalization and inter-regional cooperation and eventually become multimodal transcontinental corridors for rail, road, pipelines and trunk telecommunications routes. But the impact of increasing world trade on land network expansion, notably over railways is scale specific. The expansion of railways has permitted inter and intra-continental connections, namely landbridges.
In recent years, new rail routes in North America, Eurasia, Latin America and Africa have been developed or are being considered. There is scope for shippers to increase their trade through these new routes, particularly if rising insurance premiums, charter rates and shipping risks prompt them to opt for a land route instead of the sea route through the Suez or Panama canals. These developments linked to the integration of the regional economies to the world market are part of a rationalization and specialization process of rail traffic. But the success of these rail network expansions depends on the speed of movement and the unitization of general cargo by containerization. Railways servicing ports tend to consolidate container flows, which allows an increase in capacity and the establishment of door-to-door services through a better distribution of goods among different transport modes.
New links are establishing and reshaping new trade flows, underpinning outward cargo movements and the distribution of goods. As some coastal gateways are emerging as critical logistics services centers that rationalize distribution systems to fit new trading patterns, the land network development and cross-border crossings throughout the world have far-reaching geopolitical implications.