Introduction

The last chapter sought to summarize the theoretical foundations that transport and communications studies share and to unify them in network theory. In this chapter we identify six kinds of networks as being essential to any transport system. They are: infrastructure networks, traffic networks, regulatory networks, communications networks, auxiliary services networks and skills networks. Any transport system in any mode at any level has to be supported by all six kinds of networks. From these six different kinds of networks we develop a tool which we refer to collectively as NETS (see Figure 3.1). NETS visualizes supply chain activities as a kind of Rubik's cube that can be manipulated to find the optimum path for transport. The tool has, therefore, the potential to become a means for designing, planning, managing and rapidly revising supply chains.

Without the six different kinds of network that enable transport there can be no systematic transport in any of the four basic modes of transport. For transport to happen there must be something to transport (people and freight), a transporter (transport service provider) and something or someone to initiate transport.

Figure 3.1: The NETS Model of Transport

That transport depends on the interaction of concrete networks of infrastructure and traffic is established (Morlock, 1967), as is the need for networks of auxiliary services such as the police, ambulances and fuel stations. What is different about NETS is the...