The line chart illustrates how many products were transported by four various types of transportation, namely road, water, rail, and pipeline, from 1974 to 2002.
Overall, while there were increases in the number of goods transported by road, water, and pipeline, the figure by rail remained almost unchanged. It is important to note that while the quantity of products moved by road was consistently the highest, the opposite trend was seen in the pipeline throughout the period.
Looking first at two means of transport with gradual rises, roads were easily the most popular mode of transport to deliver goods, with the products starting at about 70 million tonnes in 1974. This number then hovered around this mark before spiking to reach a peak of just under 100 million tonnes in the next 28 years. Similar changes were seen in the number of goods transported by pipeline, starting the period at about 8 million tonnes. This figure then witnessed a gradual increase to peak at just above 20 million tonnes in 1994, before hovering around this mark until the end of the period.
As for the other two types of transport, 42 million tonnes of goods were transported by rail in 1974, after which it decreased considerably to approximately 30 million tonnes in the next ten years. This number then fluctuated slightly until 1994, followed by a significant growth to over 40 million tonnes in 2002. Although people used water as a means of transport to deliver goods less popularly than rail in 1974 (only about 39 million tonnes compared to 40 million tonnes), the former mode of transport surpassed the latter during the next four-year period. The number of products delivered by sea then rose sharply to nearly 58 million tonnes, which then hovered around this statistic until 1990. Despite witnessing a slight decrease from 1994 to 1998, this number peaked at over 60 million tonnes until the end of the period.