Referat Transport And Communication

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Transport and Communications in the United Kingdom Transport The irregular coastline of the British Isles, with its numerous indentations and bays, and navigable rivers, together with the artificial improvement of harbours and the provision of dock facilities helped Britain grow into a maritime power. The Navigation Acts of the 17th and 18th centuries were instituted to give English vessels maximum advantage in the carrying of English products. Naval victories over Spain and France, England s chief rivals in world trade, gave the nation control of the seas and pre-eminence in world merchant shipping. This leadership lasted until World War II, when the destruction of British shipping by enemy action and the increased production capacity of US shipyards enabled the American merchant marine to overtake and surpass the British merchant fleet. It has since slipped further down the league table. In the early 1990s British companies owned 668 trading vessels, of 13.6 million deadweight tonnes, a near 50 per cent decline over a decade earlier. Most of Britain s 80 commercially significant ports now rely on coastal trade. Britain s main ports are London, Tees and Hartlepool, Grimsby and Immingham, Sullom Voe, Milford Haven, Southampton, Liverpool, Felixstowe, Forth, and Dover. The ports were nationalized in the late 1940s. The majority, however, have been returned to the private sector since the early 1980s. Those still publicly owned are run as independent companies by trusts, with the potential under 1991 legislation of moving fully to the private sector. Portsmouth and the oil ports in the Shetland and Orkney Islands are owned by the respective local authorities. In the 15th century the English government began improving navigation on the country s rivers, and the first canals were constructed, often by merchants keen to attract trade to their particular town. The majority of Britain s canals, however, were built between about 1750 and 1840 by armies of labourers known as navigators because they built ways for inland navigation. Navigator was later shortened to “navvy”. Many navvies shifted to work on the railways, which from the 1830s began to compete with the canals and quickly superseded them as the main means of carrying freight. Today, Britain has some 3,200 km (2,000 mi) of canals and navigable rivers, about half of the length available in the mid-19th century. Most inland waterways are used for recreation, but some are still significant carriers of commercial traffic. They include the Manchester Ship Canal, the largest canal in Britain, and the Caledonian Canal, which links lochs to provide a navigable waterway across northern Scotland. The world s first public, steam-powered railway, the Stockton and Darlington Railway, opened in 1825. There followed 25 years of “railway mania”, in which more than 9,600 km (5,965 mi) of track were laid down. The expansion continued at a less frenetic pace into the early 20th century. During the first 100 years of the railway, the myriad small companies gradually merged, amalgamated, or were taken over to form a few larger ones. By 1923 there were just four large groups left in Great Britain: the London, Midland, and Scottish Railway; the London and North Eastern Railway; the Great Western Railway; and the Southern Railway. In 1948 these four companies, together with their associated lines, docks, hotels, and canals, were nationalized by the government and taken under the administration of the British Transport Commission. The commission was replaced in 1963 by the British Railways Board (BR). In 1955 a modernization programme was started, beginning with the steady replacement of steam trains by diesel and electric trains; the last steam locomotive was withdrawn by BR in 1968. Another aspect was the closure of many of Britain s branch railway lines during the 1960s, as part of efforts to cut costs and rationalize services in the face of growing competition from road transport. The plan, devised and approved by Richard (later Lord) Beeching during his chairmanship of BR (1963-1965), became popularly known as the “Beeching Axe”. Until 1994 BR was divided into six administrative regions: London Midland, Western, Southern, Eastern, Anglia, and Scottish. In 1994, under the Railway Act 1993, it was restructured to allow for privatization from 1995. Track and train operations were separated. Railtrack, a government-owned company, was set up to operate all track and rail infrastructure. Freight operations were divided into three geographically based companies that were privatized in 1995. Passenger operations, which are also being opened up to the private sector through franchises for particular passenger routes, were restructured into 25 separate operating units within BR. In 1995 franchises for the first passenger lines were awarded, with more planned to follow in 1996. In May 1996 Railtrack was privatized through a share issue. These moves to fully privatize BR have been highly contentious and have generated considerable criticism within Britain. In mid-1994, some 16,535 km (10,275 mi) of track were open for traffic in Great Britain; about 30 per cent of it was electrified. There was, in addition, some 408 km (254 mi) of track in London operated by London Underground Ltd. of which about 42 per cent is underground. The system is being extended with the construction of new lines in east and south-east London. There are also urban rail systems in Glasgow, Liverpool, Tyne and Wear, and Manchester. In Northern Ireland, railway services are operated by the Northern Ireland Railway Company Ltd. Some 330 km (206 mi) of track were in use in the early 1990s. In the late 19th century work was begun on a tunnel beneath the English Channel. The project was abandoned and then revived in 1957. Work began again, but Britain halted the project in 1973 citing the immense cost. In 1987, however, work began again and a service tunnel was completed in 1990. The main Channel Tunnel, which is 50.4 km (32 mi) long, runs from Folkestone, England, to Calais, France. It cost more than US$16 billion (£10 billion), runs at an average depth of 40 m (132 ft) below the sea bed, and was completed in 1993. It was officially opened on May 6, 1994, when Queen Elizabeth II and French president François Mitterrand travelled through the tunnel. Freight services began later the same month, but full passenger services were not established for almost another year. British Airways was formed in 1974 by combining the two state-run airlines, British Overseas Airways Company (BOAC) and British European Airways. Privatized in 1987, British Airways is one of the world s leading airlines and operates the world s largest network of international scheduled services, travelling to some 155 destinations in 72 countries. In 1976, together with Air France, British Airways inaugurated the world s first supersonic passenger service, using the Concorde aircraft. Besides the national airline, Britain has numerous independent operators. The largest include Air UK, British Midland, Virgin Atlantic, and Britannia Airways, which is the world s largest charter airline. London s main airports, Heathrow and Gatwick, are among the world s busiest centres for international travel. Heathrow handled some 48 million passengers in 1993, up more than 20 per cent since 1989, and is the world s busiest airport for international travel. Gatwick handled some 20 million passengers in the same year. There are another 146 licensed civil aerodromes in Britain, of which 11 handle more than 1 million passengers a year each. In 1970 Britain joined Airbus Industries, a European aircraft-manufacturing consortium, as an associate partner. In 1979 the country became a full member. Airbus manufactures medium and large wide-bodied passenger jets, with each member of the consortium making specific parts. Members include France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Spain. Britain (1993 official figure) has some 388,710 km (241,533 mi) of public roads, including 3,716 km (2,309 mi) of trunk motorways. England accounts for more than 71 per cent of the total road network, and almost 85 per cent of the motorway network. Scotland has 13 per cent and 8 per cent respectively, Wales 9 per cent and 4 per cent, and Northern Ireland about 6 per cent and 3 per cent respectively. Although motorways account for about 1 per cent of the British road system, they also account for about 15 per cent of all road traffic. Trunk roads account for around another 4 per cent of the road network; combined with motorways they carry over half of all goods vehicle traffic. About 90 per cent of all passenger travel in Britain is by road, and mainly by private car rather than public transport. In the early 1990s more than 20 million passenger cars were registered in Britain, representing an increase of more than 15 per cent over the late 1980s. This growth has been paralleled by rising public concern about the environmental effects of increasing road traffic, and especially concern about pollution. In 1994 the government slowed down its road-building programme. The move was in part a response to research findings that tended to confirm environmentalists claims that the main effect of building new trunk roads and motorways had been to encourage extra traffic and not, as intended, to improve the flow of existing traffic. Communications The Post Office, founded in 1635, pioneered postal services and was the first (1830s) to issue adhesive stamps as proof of advance payment for mail. In 1969 the Post Office was reorganized as a public corporation. Today its operations are divided into three distinct businesses. The Royal Mail handles collection and delivery of mail, dealing with almost 16 billion items a year. Parcelforce handles parcel delivery, while Post Office Counters is the retailing arm. It acts as an agent for the letters and parcels business, for government departments and local authorities and for the Alliance and Leicester Giro (formerly Girobank) bank. Post Office Counters operates 800 main post offices; another 19,000 or so branch, or sub-post, offices are operated as franchises or on an agency basis. In the 1980s, the Conservative government suspended the Royal Mail s monopoly on letter deliveries, subject to a minimum fee of £1 (US$1.6), leading to an explosion of courier services. However, government attempts to bring the Post Office into the private sector in 1995 failed, following a parliamentary revolt by some of its own supporters. In 1870 the government acquired the British telegraph systems, and in 1892 it began buying the private telephone companies. Telecommunications were the responsibility of the Post Office until 1981, when British Telecom was founded to take over telecommunications management. British Telecom was privatized in 1984, and in 1991 changed its name to BT. A number of other companies now offer telecommunications services, including Mercury Communications and Cellnet. Some of the privatized electricity companies have used their pylon networks to set up a fibre-optics telecommunications system, and cable-television companies also offer telephone services. Hull has always had its own telephone system. In the early 1990s some 20 million residential and 6 million business lines were in operation, as well as more than 300,000 public and private payphones, giving Britain one of the world s largest telecommunications systems. The Media The BBC, the Independent Television Commission (ITC), and the Radio Authority, all public bodies, are licensed to provide television and radio broadcasting services. Altogether Britain has four terrestrial television channels and almost 200 radio stations. There also several satellite companies based in Britain, and an increasing number of cable companies. Founded in 1922 and working under a royal charter, the BBC operates two domestic television channels as well as five national radio networks and some 38 local radio stations. It is financed predominantly by revenue from a television licence fee and supplemented by trading activities. The BBC also operates a variety of external broadcast services. The World Service, initiated in 1932 as the Empire Service, provides radio broadcasts in more than 38 languages to an audience estimated at more than 120 million, and is funded by the government. In 1991 the BBC set up World Service Television as a commercial subsidiary to operate its television satellite services. The BBC s royal charter is renewed periodically, normally following discussions between the corporation and the government over financing and other issues. The current charter expired in 1996. The White Paper included the recommendation that licence fees remain the prime source of BBC finance until at least 2001, with the possibility of whole or partial privatization thereafter to be examined in the interim. The first regular independent television (ITV) programmes began in London in 1955 under the aegis of the Independent Television Authority (ITA). In 1972, when the first independent radio stations were licensed, the ITA was replaced by the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), which oversaw the operation of both television and radio. Today, the third (ITV) and fourth (Channel 4) domestic television channels are operated by independent television companies: ITV is operated by 15 regionally based television companies and 1 breakfast-television company; Channel 4, which began operating in 1982, has a remit to provide programmes for minority audiences of various kinds. In Wales the fourth channel is operated by a Welsh-language company, SC4. The government provides the majority of the funding for SC4, but Channel 4 raises its revenue through advertising and other commercial activities, as do the ITV companies. There are about 150 commercially financed independent local radio stations in Britain, with many more planned. During the 1990s the first three national independent radio stations were launched: Classic FM (1991), Virgin 1215 (1993), and Talk Radio UK (1995). The 1990 Broadcasting Act overhauled the regulation of independent television and radio in the light of changes such as the introduction of satellite and domestic cable television services. In 1991 the IBA was replaced by the Independent Television Commission (ITC) and the Radio Authority. At the same time the Cable Authority was made part of the two new bodies. The ITC is responsible for licensing and regulating the two terrestrial channels; licences for the third channel are awarded on the basis of competitive tender. It is also responsible for the proposed fifth channel, cable services, independent teletext companies, and satellite services broadcast from Britain. The Radio Authority carries similar responsibilities for independent radio. In the early 1990s more than 20 million television licences were issued each year, and there were estimated to be more than 58 million radios; in 1994 there were more than 460,000 cable-television subscribers. Some 124 daily and Sunday newspapers—including 11 national dailies and 9 national Sunday papers—and more than 1,300 weekly newspapers are published in Britain. The national papers were once all printed in Fleet Street, in central London; the name “Fleet Street” became synonymous with the newspaper industry. All have now moved their editorial and printing facilities to other parts of London, or away from the capital altogether. Ownership of the national press is highly concentrated. Three groups—News International (owned by Rupert Murdoch), the Mirror Group, and United Newspapers—own the majority of titles between them. The national press is often divided into three market-based categories: the “quality”, the “mid-market”, and the “popular” press. The qualities, also called “broadsheets” because of the size of the paper they are printed on, include the most respected, and some of the oldest, British newspapers such as The Times (founded 1785), the Guardian (formerly the Manchester Guardian) (1821), the Daily Telegraph (1855), the Financial Times (1888), the Independent (1986), and the Observer (1791), a Sunday paper. The mid-market and, especially, the popular papers—the Sun (1964), the Daily Mirror (1903), and the Daily Star (1978)—are often referred to as “tabloids” because they are printed on small sheets of paper. Characterized by sensationalist stories and large quantities of photographic material, the mass-market tabloids are very influential. Almost 7,000 periodicals, mainly weeklies and monthlies, are published in Britain. Noted weeklies include the New Scientist, New Statesman and Society, the Spectator, the Economist, and the Times Literary Supplement. Britain also has many outstanding book publishers. - PAGE 4 - 쥁`