CHAPTER VII
THE PORT AS A “ TERMINAL ”
AMONG the different aspects in which a port may be
considered, none is of greater importance than that of its
relations to inland transport—in other words, the linking
up of its water services with its land services. We have
seen in Chapter I that consignments of goods for export
reach a port from inland sources by various routes, and
that incoming goods from abroad are distributed along
the same routes, but in the opposite direction. We have
now to consider the port in its relation to these land
routes, that is, as a ““ Terminal,” using a word adopted
in America to express a point or station at which goods
are transferred from one class of transporting agency to
another.
RAIL CONNECTIONS
Obviously, the most prominent and the most effective
means of inland transport at the present time is the railway,
certainly as regards distances of considerable extent.
Within the immediate vicinity of the port, road vehicular
transport may occupy the chief place, and, for moderate
distances inland, there is a growing rivalry between the
motor lorry and the railway wagon. Furthermore, if
dispatch is not an important consideration, goods may
be transported by waterway at a considerable saving in cost.
But, despite these reservations, the railway remains the
chief and essential link between the port and its hinterland.
It acts as the principal collecting and distributing agency
over a wide area of country, extending to remote towns
and districts, and forming the connecting medium with
inland industries and manufactures, mills and factories,
markets and merchandise. The problem, therefore, of
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