The Modern Ways of Transportation

In some respects the topic statement is true. Modern transport, especially by air, allows people to circle the globe in a few days, or hours if an aircraft such as Concorde is used. Thus we have learned to look upon distance as nothing. I can get to Paris from southeast England quicker than I can get to central London. So, the world has become a village? If so, the comparison ends there. In no respect does the world resemble a village community. Those who support the one-world movement no doubt share a great ideal but are, in fact, flying in the face of history, of present facts, and of any likelihood in the near future.

Modern travel merely underlines the differences between races and nations. Rather than broaden the mind, travel confirms national prejudices. It may well lead to a greater international understanding, but to understand does not mean to agree, or to forgive. Modern travel may allow great athletes to meet every four years in friendship to discover the medal winners, but it would be naive to suppose that the Olympic Spirit had anything to do with the reality of international affairs or could possibly have any effect on them.

Of course, modern transport cannot be blamed for the state of today’s world. Like atomic energy, it is neutral, and the blessing or the curse results from the way in which it is used.

First, the benefits. Before the invention of the electric telegraph, news of a natural disaster in, say, an eastern country could only reach the west by steamship, so that by the time help reached a stricken area, it was too late to be of much use. Today, information by satellite, both in reports and pictures, is instantaneous. Response time is correspondingly quick. Modern transport planes can carry food, water, and medical supplies to where they are needed in a matter of hours.

So the modern jet aircraft can help enormously in relief work. It has also proved of great benefit both to the business world and to tourism. Within certain weight limits, it can be used for overseas trade worldwide, and the vast extension of available markets is largely due to modern aircraft. And where the business has to be done in person there are no real delays.

The aircraft has extended foreign travel, once the prerogative of the rich, to those of average income levels in most countries, and tourism has become a major world industry. The aircraft and the helicopter both have important search and rescue roles. Ships in distress can be readily located and given help. The helicopter has several roles, apart from its use by the police for searches and traffic control. Many lives have been saved in mountainous areas and at sea by speedy removal to hospital, by immediate attention by paramedics; a jet plane can carry a suitable human organ half across the world when a transplant is urgently needed.

Modernized and high-speed rail systems are likely to prove of benefit to many countries from the travel and trade points of view. Take Europe as an example. Tariff barriers in the EEC have now come down, and Europe, including Britain, has become a free-market area. In 1994, England will be linked to Europe by a channel tunnel, and Paris or Brussels will be reached as quickly as by air. Already, goods to and from Europe, and indeed worldwide, are transported in standardized containers, which are picked up and moved rapidly in heavy lorries to their destinations along with new networks of motorways. The motorways also greatly ease long-distance car travel. At sea, modern oil tankers carry their vast burdens worldwide.

Yet as with any other advance, all is not sweetness and light. In the case of the jet aircraft, one needs only to mention the spy plane, the bomber, the fighter, the assault helicopter, all of them potent war weapons, and a curse to millions of helpless people worldwide. The potential for nuclear, nerve gas, chemical, and bombing is a curse that hangs over all our heads. The need for ever-larger airfields means the destruction of tracts of countryside. Noise and oil pollution make life a burden to those living nearby. In some countries, over-concentration on high-speed and inter-city trains has led to the severe neglect of existing networks and ordinary passenger rolling stock.

In smaller countries such as England, there are now far too many cars and traffic jams in the large urban areas, providing an almost unsolvable problem. Ease of travel allows football hooligans and other undesirables to cause trouble overseas. Every improvement in transport facilities helps the criminal as well as the bonafide traveler, particularly where immigration controls are relaxed. Immigration itself becomes an increasing problem. And at sea? All is well with the oil tanker until it runs aground in a storm and deposits thousands of tons of oil along the shoreline.

So there is a case to be made of the more leisurely times, to some, the good old days. Modern transport has reduced the world if not to a village, at least relatively to village size. Whether the village will ever become a happy community is another matter.