Topic 4

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Topic 4 Transportation Terminals

1. The Function of Transport Terminals
2. Ports and Rail Terminals
3. Airport Terminals
4. Terminals and Security

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A The Function of Transport Terminals

• 1. The Nature of Transport Terminals
• 2. Passengers Terminals
• 3. Freight Terminals
• 4. Terminal Costs

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1. The Nature of Transport Terminals

• Concept
• All spatial flows, with the exception of personal
  vehicular and pedestrian trips, involve movements
  between terminals.
• Modes assembly and distribution
• Cannot travel individually, but in batches.
• People have to go to bus terminals and airports
  first to reach their final destinations.
• Freight has to be consolidated at a port or a
  rail yard before onward shipment.
• Terminals are essential links in transportation
  chains.

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1. The Nature of Transport Terminals

• Definition
• Any location where freight and passengers either
  originates, terminates, or is handled in the
  transportation process.
• Central and intermediate locations
• Points of interchange within the same modal
  system.
• Insure a continuity of the flows.
• Particularly the case for modern air and port
  operations.
• Require specific facilities to accommodate the
  traffic they handle.
• Points of interchange within the same mode.
• Points of transfer between modes.

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1. The Nature of Transport Terminals

• Location
• Serve a large concentration of population and/or
  industrial activities.
• Specific terminals have specific locational
  constraints.
• New transport terminals tend to be located
  outside central areas to avoid high land costs
  and congestion.
• Convergence
• Obligatory points of passage.
• Invested on their geographical location which is
  generally intermediate to commercial flows.
• Created by the centrality or the intermediacy of
  their respective locations.

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1. The Nature of Transport Terminals

• Accessibility
• Accessibility to other terminals (at the local,
  regional and global scale).
• How well the terminal is linked to the regional
  transport system.
• Infrastructure
• Handle and transship freight or passengers.
• Must accommodate current traffic and anticipate
  future trends.
• Modern terminal infrastructures consequently
  require massive investments.

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The Function of Transport Terminals
Location
Local
Regional
Global
Infrastructures
Accessibility
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2. Passengers Terminals

• Overview
• Passenger terminals require relatively little
  specific equipment.
• Simple structures.
• Basic amenities (waiting areas, ticket counters,
  food services).
• Airports
• Are the exception.
• The most complex terminals.
• Passengers may spend several hours in the
  terminal.
• Transiting, check-in and security checks, baggage
  pick up and customs and immigration on
  international arrivals.
• Wide range of services.
• Provide the very specific needs of the aircraft.

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Chek Lap Kok Air Terminal, Main Concourse, Hong
Kong, China
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3. Freight Terminals

• Specialized entities
• Specific loading and unloading equipment.
• Wide range of handling gear is required.
• Differentiated functionally both by the mode
  involved and the commodities transferred.
• Distinction by two major types of cargo
• Bulk
• Goods that are handled in large quantities, that
  are unpackaged and are available in uniform
  dimensions.
• Liquid bulk goods Pumps to move the product
  along hoses and pipes limited handling equipment
  is needed, but significant storage facilities may
  be required.
• Dry bulk wide range of products, such as ores,
  coal and cereals handling equipment is
  required utilize specialized grabs and cranes
  and conveyer-belt systems.

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3. Freight Terminals

• General cargo
• Goods that are of many shapes, dimensions and
  weights such as machinery and parts.
• Because the goods are so uneven and irregular,
  handling is difficult to mechanize.
• General cargo handling usually requires a lot of
  manpower.
• Warehousing
• Assembling the individual bundles of goods
• Time-consuming and storage may be required.
• Need for terminals to be equipped with
  specialized infrastructures
• Grain silos, storage tanks, and refrigerated
  warehouses, or simply space to stockpile.

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Hong Kong International Distribution Center
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4. Terminal Costs

• Terminal costs
• An important component of transport costs.
• Infrastructure costs
• Construction and maintenance costs.
• Facilities such as piers, runways, cranes and
  structures.
• Transshipment costs
• Composing, handling and decomposing passengers or
  freight.
• Labor requirement of terminal facilities.
• Administration costs
• Managed by institutions such as port or airport
  authorities or by private companies.

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Terminal Costs
Cost
C1
C2
C3
Road
Rail
Maritime
T3
T2
T1
Distance
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B Ports and Rail Terminals

• 1. Port Sites
• 2. Port Functions
• 3. Rail Terminals

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1. Port Sites

• Ports
• Convergence between two domains of freight
  circulation
• Land and maritime domains.
• Facilitates convergence between land transport
  and maritime systems.
• Handle the largest amounts of freight, more than
  any other types of terminals combined.
• Infrastructures to accommodate transshipment
  activities.
• Administration
• Submitted to authorities.
• Regulating infrastructure investments, its
  organization and development and its
  relationships with customers using its services.

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Port Sites
In a delta
Margin of a delta
Along a river
Natural harbors
Near an estuary
In a bay
Protected
In an estuary
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1. Port Sites

• Port sites
• Maritime access
• Physical capacity of the site to accommodate ship
  operations.
• Tidal range difference between the high and low
  tide. Ship operations cannot handle variations of
  more than 3 meters.
• Channel and berth depths very important to
  accommodate modern cargo ships.
• Panamax ship (65,000 deadweight tons) requires
  more than 12 meters (40 feet) of depth.
• Many port sites are unable to handle modern
  maritime access.
• Maritime interface
• Amount of space that is available to support
  maritime access.
• Related to the amount of shoreline.
• Guarantee its future development and expansion.

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1. Port Sites

• Infrastructures
• Must have infrastructures such as piers, cranes
  and warehouses.
• Infrastructures consume land which must be
  available to insure port expansion.
• Land access
• Access from the port to industrial complexes and
  markets.
• Requires efficient inland distribution systems,
  such as fluvial, rail (mainly for containers) and
  road transportation.

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Post Panamax Containership at the Port of Le Havre
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Basic Constraints of Port Sites
Land Access
Land Space
Port
Interface
Infrastructures
Maritime Space
Maritime Access
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Harbor Types
Coastal Natural
Coastal Breakwater
River Basins
River Tide Gates
Coastal Tide Gates
River Natural
Canal or Lake
Open Roadstead
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Number of Large and Medium Ports by Channel Depth
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The American Waterway System
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Channel Depth at Selected North American Ports,
1998 (in feet)
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1. Port Sites

• Port development
• Setting
• Dependent on geographical considerations.
• Furthest point of inland navigation by sailships.
• Fishing port with trading and shipbuilding
  activities.
• Simple terminal facilities.
• Warehousing and wholesaling, adjacent to the
  port.
• Expansion
• The industrial revolution triggered several
  changes on port activities.
• Quays were expanded and jetties were constructed
  to handle the growing amounts of freight and
  passengers as well as larger ships).
• Shipbuilding became an activity that required the
  construction of docks.
• Integration of rail lines with port terminals.
• Port-related activities expanded to include
  industrial activities.
• Expansion mainly occurred downstream.

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1. Port Sites

• Specialization
• Construction of specialized piers to handle
  freight such as containers, ores, grain,
  petroleum and coal.
• Expansion of warehousing needs.
• Larger high-capacity ships often required
  dredging or the construction of long jetties
  granting access to greater depths.
• Downstream migration.
• Original port sites became obsolete and were
  abandoned.
• Reconversion opportunities of port facilities to
  other uses (waterfront parks, housing and
  commercial developments).

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The Evolution of a Port
Setting
Expansion
Specialization
4
4
4
3
2
5
1
2
3
4
4
Rail
Downtown
Terminal facilities
Reconversion
Water depth
Highway
Port-related activities
Urban expansion
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Evolution of the Port of Rotterdam
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2. Port Functions

• Main functions
• Supply services to freight (warehousing,
  transshipment, etc.).
• Supply services to ships (piers, refueling,
  repairs, etc.).
• Concomitantly a maritime and land terminal.
• Regional in their dynamics.
• Hong Kong
• Natural site.
• Geographical position of a transit harbor for
  southern China.
• Singapore
• Outlet of the strategic Strait of Malacca.
• Convergence of Southeast Asian transportation.
• New York
• Gateway of the North American Midwest.
• Hudson / Erie canal system.

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Port Functions
Maritime Space
Land Space
Regional port
Regional port
Hinterland
Foreland
FDC
FDC
Main port
Main port
Export activity
Infrastructure
Import activity
Maritime transport
Services to merchandises
Services to ships
Rail transport
Road transport
FDC
Freight distribution center
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2. Port Functions

• Port activities
• About 4,600 ports in are in operation worldwide.
• Less than one hundred ports have a global
  importance.
• High level of concentration in a limited number
  of large ports.
• Linked to maritime access and infrastructure
  development.
• Gateways of continental distribution systems.
• Containerization has substantially changed port
  dynamics.
• Port types
• Monofunctionnal ports
• Transit a limited array of commodities, most
  often dry or liquid bulks.
• Specialized piers.
• Polyfunctionnal ports
• Several transshipment and industrial activities
  are present.
• Variety of specialized and general cargo piers.

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Throughput of the Worlds Major Ports, 1997-2000
(in millions of metric tons)
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Container Traffic of the World 15 Largest Ports,
2003
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Traffic at Major North American Container Ports,
2003
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2. Port Functions

• Problems related to port infrastructures
• Ports along rivers are continuously facing
  dredging problems.
• Width of rivers is strongly limiting capacity
• Rarely a port along a river has the capacity to
  handle Post Panamax ships.
• Lateral spread of infrastructures (Seaports).
• Congestion in central areas.
• Port / city competition for land (waterfront
  development).

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3. Rail Terminals

• Location
• Not as space-extensive as airports and ports.
• Suffer less from site constraints
• Many established prior to the Second World War.
• Cities were more compact and land acquisition was
  easier.
• Passengers and freight terminals
• Different locations.
• Central railway stations
• Feature of most cities and tend to be located in
  downtown areas.
• Key elements of urban centrality and activity.
• Freight rail stations
• Consume more space.
• Tend to be located at the periphery.
• Older yards tend to be located at the margin of
  CBDs.

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Centraal Train Station, Amsterdam
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TGV Train at Gare de Lyon, Paris, France
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Quai d'Orsay Museum, Paris, France
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C Airport Terminals

• 1. Airport Sites
• 2. Airport Functions

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1. Airport Sites

• Concept
• Airports act as the main technical support of air
  transport.
• Increased pressures on terminals
• Existing terminals have been expanded and new
  terminals have been constructed.
• Replace airports no longer able to cope with the
  increased traffic.
• International / Regional
• Role and function in the international and
  regional urban system.
• Centrality (being an origin and destination of
  air traffic) and intermediacy (a hub or a gateway
  between destinations).
• Local
• Level of accessibility of the airport over the
  metropolitan area it services.
• Daily flows of planes, passengers, freight to and
  from the airport's terminals.

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Geographical Scales of Airport Location
International / Regional
Local
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1. Airport Sites

• Local site requirements.
• Airfields
• Runways and parking areas.
• Long enough to accommodate the takeoff and
  landing of commercial planes.
• About 3,300 meters (10,000 feet) are required for
  a 747 to takeoff.
• Slope (less 1), altitude and meteorological
  conditions.
• About 32 movements (landings and takeoffs) per
  hour are possible on a commercial runway under
  optimal conditions.
• Terminals
• Freight and passenger transit infrastructures.
• Infrastructures for plane accommodation.
• Linked with local transport systems.

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Air Terminals
Airfield
Isle
Shuttles
Terminal
Terminal
2
3
1
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Airport Location Factors
City Center
Low
High
High
Commuting radius
High
Low
Low
Benefits
Externalities
Suitability
Location Ring
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1. Airport Sites

• Land requirements
• Land required by modern airport operations is
  considerable
• Landing and take off of planes.
• Buffer between the adjacent urban areas to limit
  the noise generated.
• Parking areas in airports located in car
  dependent cities.
• Peripheral sites
• Sufficient quantities of land available.
• The more recently an airport was constructed, the
  more likely this airport is to be located far
  from the city center.
• Expansion and relocation
• Extremely difficult.
• Most airports have grown at locations chosen in
  the 1950s and 1960s.
• Most airports are now surrounded.
• Only sites available are far from the urban core.

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Site of the Hong Kong Chek Lap Kok Terminal
Northern runway
Train station
Passenger terminal
Future Terminal Expansion
Light Rail System
Southern runway
Logistics and cargo area
To Kowloon and Hong Kong
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Aerial View of Hong Kong Chek Lap Kok Airport
Terminal
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Kansai International Airport, Osaka Bay, Japan
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Aerial View of the Dallas / Fort Worth Airport
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Phosavan Airfeild, Laos
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2. Airport Functions

• Airport activities
• Terminal activities
• Parking, ground transportation, checking in,
  baggage-claiming, restoration, retailing and
  maintenance.
• Provide services to passengers and freight.
• Airfield activities
• Loading and unloading planes, maintenance and
  traffic control.
• Provide services to aircrafts.
• Economic functions
• Improved economic opportunities.
• Employment (USA)
• 500 billion of economic activity.
• 1.9 million direct and 4.8 million indirect jobs.
• Global service activities.
• Passengers and freight airports.

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Passenger Traffic at the Worlds Largest
Airports, 2004
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Freight Traffic at the Worlds Largest Airports,
2004
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Tons of Landed Freight at Major US Airports, 2003
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D Terminal Security

• 1. Passengers
• 2. Freight

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1. Passengers

• A focus on terminals
• Access is monitored and controlled.
• Movements are channeled along pathways that
  provide safe access to and from platforms and
  gates.
• Safety and theft have been a concern for freight
  terminals.
• Airports
• Focus of security concerns for many decades.
• High-jacking aircraft came to the fore in the
  1970s.
• Terrorist groups in the Middle East exploited the
  lack of security to commandeer planes for ransom
  and publicity.
• Established screening procedures for passengers
  and bags.
• Reductions in hijackings, although terrorists
  changed their tactics by placing bombs in
  un-accompanied luggage and packages,

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1. Passengers

• Hub-and-spoke networks
• Strain on the security process.
• Disparities in the effectiveness of passenger
  screening.
• Impacts of September 11, 2001
• Department of Homeland Security established the
  Transportation Security Authority (TSA).
• Strict new security measures
• Restricting access to airport facilities.
• Fortifying cockpits.
• Extensive security screening of passengers.
• Screening
• More rigorous inspections of passengers and their
  baggage at airports.
• Biometric identification for foreign nationals
  (fingerprint, facial recognition).

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1. Passengers

• Costs
• All screeners (45,000) are now part of the
  Federal workforce.
• Purchase of screening machinery and training of
  personnel.
• Additional delays and aggravation for passengers.
• Downturn in air transport.
• Some passengers may switch to other modes.

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2. Freight

• Issues
• Less regulated and greater international
  dimensions.
• Illegal immigrants, drug smuggling, piracy.
• The container makes it extremely difficult to
  identify illicit and/or dangerous cargoes.
• Hubbing
• Compounds the problem.
• Large numbers of containers are required to be
  handled with minimum delays and inconvenience.
• Automated Identity System
• Permanently marked and visible identity number.
• Record maintained of flag, port of registry and
  address of the registered owner.

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2. Freight

• Each port must undertake a security assessment
• Assets and facilities.
• Effects of damages that might be caused.
• Evaluate the risks, and identify weaknesses to
  security.
• Customs clearance
• All cargoes destined for the US.
• Prior to the departure of the ship.
• Biometric identification for seafarers to be
  implemented and that national databases of
  sailors to be maintained.