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type of road. With off-road vehicles, few locations
are unreachable other than mountainous or very
steep terrain. Even with buses, little in the way of
terminal development is required when compared
to air, rail or water transportation. In fact, with bus
service it is possible to pick up or drop off
passengers at nearly any point along the route
served.
Rail transportation is confined to a limited right
of way, since the carrier must travel where there is
a set of railroad tracks. Often, railroad tracks are
only found between and within urbanised areas
where sufficient volumes of passengers can be
found �see transit). Additionally, the number of
terminals can be quite limited and far apart,
especially in non-urban or rural areas. The speed
of rail service can vary widely from over 300 kph
�200 mph) for high-speed rail services to average
speeds lower than 80 kph �50 mph).
The water mode is typically characterised by
vehicles that move on the surface of the water, such
as passenger ships, ferries �see ferry), or hovercraft.
Ferries are generally used on shorter routes,
including within urban areas �Seattle, for example)
or in archipelagos �the Philippines or Indonesia, for
instance). In some cases the mode operates below
the surface, such as with submarines. These vessels
are used primarily for viewing marine life and
underwater scenes, rather than for transportation
between an origin and a destination.
In recent decades, the most prominent sector of
the passenger ship market was and continues to be
the cruise lines, which offer far more than just
transportation between two points. They may
provide lavish entertainment, fine dining, gambling
and other amenities to their guests. The
right of way of the water mode may be constrained
to navigable waterways, especially for inland
routes, but all forms of this mode are constrained
by the location of terminals �seaports or inland
ports). The water mode does not provide very high
speeds compared to air, rail or highway, with a
typical cruise vessel operating at about 40 kph �25
mph).
All modes of transportation are regulated in
some manner, be it economic or non-economic.
Economic regulation focuses on the routes served,
frequency and capacity of the service provided, and
the fares or rates charged by carriers. Non-
transportation 597
economic regulation, on the other hand, focuses
on aspects such as safety, certification of carrier
personnel and traffic control. Nearly all nations
have some form of domestic transportation regulation,
with international transportation regulation
often being more complex.
Internationally, the degree of economic regulation
varies by mode of transportation. International
airlines have traditionally been heavily regulated,
for both economic and non-economic reasons.
Cruise lines, however, have seen little in the way of
economic regulation, with a varying level of safety
regulation depending upon where the ships are
registered. The rail and highway modes have also
been regulated internationally when vehicles pass
between nations.
Economic regulation has been reduced in a
number of transportation markets in recent years,
beginning with domestic airline deregulation in
the United States in the late 1970s. Since then,
many other countries have deregulated their
national transportation systems to some degree,
including air, highway and rail. Internationally,
economic regulation has been reduced in some
markets, with the European Union being a
prime example of including not only air but other
modes as well.
Passenger transportation plays a critical role in
determining the success or failure of nearly every
segment of tourism. Without a reliable and
economic form of passenger transportation to,
from and within a destination, enticing tourists to
visit that destination may be very difficult. In some
cases, transportation becomes an identifiable part
of the tourism product, such as the cable cars in
San Francisco, double-decker buses in London,
and gondolas in Venice.
The transportation carrier may also be a
`destination' in its own right, as has occurred with
some cruise lines in areas such as the Caribbean,
Mediterranean, and Mexican Riviera. Other forms
of transportation that serve as `destinations' include
tourism railroads �typically steam-powered), luxury
trains such as the `Orient Express', and `flights to
nowhere' on the Concorde. In other cases, a
transportation carrier may provide the only viable
way of viewing a destination, such as the cruise
lines serving the southeast coast of Alaska.
Technological advances in transportation over