Whitley Secondary School

Humanities Department: Geography

Ch10: Transport Systems and their Spatial Distribution

1. What are transport systems?

Transport is one of most important human
activities worldwide.

Movement between locations depends on the

existence of transport networks.

It connects people between different

locations, providing opportunities for social
interaction and economic trade.

Transport systems
can be characterised by

Quality of
Density of network Variety of modes
infrastructure

A transport network The reliability and performance of The way people and goods
contains: a transport system depends on the are moved depends on the
• Nodes: locations that quality of its infrastructure. variety of transport modes
provide entry to the Transport infrastructure includes offered in cities.
transport network roads, railways, walkways, bridges, Cities generally offer a
• Routes: paths for bicycle lanes, signages, information wide variety of transport
travel between nodes systems, ticketing systems etc. modes that travel on or
Quality of transport systems can through land, water and air
Network density refers be measured by indicators like e.g. bus, ferry, airplanes
to the number of nodes and • Coverage: availability and reach
routes in an area. The more of infrastructure Increasingly, cities are
nodes and routes there are • Capacity: number of people or encouraging non-motorised
in an area, the denser the amount of goods that can be transport modes such as
network density. moved walking and cycling, which
• Frequency: number of are more environmentally
Most cities have dense occurrences of a service friendly and promote
transport networks, making • Convenience: ease of health benefits. Shared
it easier for people to reach movement mobility, through bike-
locations and engage in • Environmental sustainability: sharing and car-sharing, is
different activities. environmental impact also on the rise.
Whitley Secondary School
Humanities Department: Geography
How has Singapore’s MRT network evolved? 1990
North-South Line and East-West Line
Stations are coded based on the
region they are in; E for East, W for
West, N for North, C for City and M
for Marina. The branch line stations
are prefixed with the letter B.

2020

A variety of other
transport modes
on or through
land, water, air is
also available
Whitley Secondary School
Humanities Department: Geography
Describe how Singapore’s MRT network has developed from 1990 to 2020.

Global maritime network Train and bus network Bus network within a city
in a region
Nodes: Nodes: Nodes:
Major ports Inter-city interchange Bus interchange
Minor ports Local interchange
Routes: Routes: Routes:
Major shipping routes Roads Major roads
Minor shipping routes Rail lines Minor roads

How good is the quality of Singapore’s MRT system?

Evaluate the quality of Singapore’s MRT system in terms of the following indicators:

You may refer to LTA’s website and other online resources:

https://www.lta.gov.sg/content/ltagov/en/getting_around/public_transport/rail_network.html#:~:text
=Train%20frequency%20is%202%20to,minutes%20during%20off%2Dpeak%20times.

Coverage

Capacity

Frequency

Convenience

Environmental
sustainability
Whitley Secondary School
Humanities Department: Geography
2. Where are transport nodes located within a city?

Transport nodes are not equal – there are major and minor transport nodes.

Major nodes, such as terminals1 and interchanges2, are usually found in:
• Areas with high concentration of activities to allow more people to access these activities
• Areas that offer high levels of local accessibility from which people can reach many different
destinations with relative ease within a given time frame and cost

1Terminals: where passengers and freight either originate or terminate in the transportation process
2Interchanges: important points of transfer within or between transport networks of different modes

Why are many train stations concentrated in the Central Area? What kind of activities
are located in that area?

Which station on the map is the most accessible? Explain your answer.
Whitley Secondary School
Humanities Department: Geography
3. Why are transport systems located in cities?

What roles do transport systems play?

Role of transport Description
Movement of • Facilitate the everyday mobility of people, enabling people to commute to
people work, usually concentrated in the city centre, from residential areas,
usually in more affordable areas further away
• Provide access to social activities and amenities that will improve people’s
social and emotional wellbeing
• E.g. Singapore’s Land Transport Authority invests millions of dollars to
expand the country’s network of sheltered walkways, allowing
commuters to reach schools, healthcare facilities and other public
amenities within a 400-metre radius of MRT stations and within a 200-
metre radius of bus interchanges and LRT stations

Movement of • Vital to the functioning of economic activities, supplying goods and

goods and services from where they are produced to where they are consumed.
services • With the rise of e-commerce, where goods and services are bought or
sold over the Internet, has increased the demand for door-to-door
delivery of goods.
• People also depend on transport services for their daily needs
• E.g. In Mexico City, residents who live beyond the reach of piped water
distribution depend entirely on water supply trucks while for some cities
in California, water trucks help to deliver water to households during
times of drought.
• E.g. Singapore was able to maintain a stable supply of safe food
throughout the COVID-19 pandemic as we kept trade links open with
countries near and far, importing food from diversified sources in
countries as far as Brazil and the Netherlands
Whitley Secondary School
Humanities Department: Geography
Connection • Transport systems facilities the connection between transport modes and
between between cities.
transport modes • Unimodal transport involves only one transport mode e.g. bus
• Intermodal transport involves two or more transport modes e.g. bus
→ transfer to train
• Taps on the strengths of each transport mode with the goal of linking
different modal networks to reach more destinations
• Each transport mode has its own set of optimal conditions for travel such
as distance, cost, time and the volume it can carry e.g. maritime transport
is more value-for-money but air transport is faster; road transport is
more versatile but rail transport is more cost-efficient for large volumes
• An efficient transport network has good intermodal connectivity
where there is seamless movement of passengers and freight between
two or more transport modes; key to ensuring that passengers do not
get lost and goods do not go missing while changing between modes at
intermodal interchanges

Connection • Connection between cities can be direct or indirect

between cities • Point-to-point network: connects a set of locations directly without
any interruption of services
• Hub-and-spoke network: connects every location through one
intermediary location called a hub e.g. Singapore’s Changi Airport is a
‘super hub’ for freight as it processes over a million tonnes of goods a
year