Band 6+: WRITING TASK 1 You should spend about 20 minutes on this task. The graph below shows the quantities of goods transported in the UK between 1974 and 2002 by four different modes of transport. You should write at least 150 words.

The graph illustrates the change of transportation modes in the United Kingdom between 1974 and 2002. Units are measured in million tones.

Overall, the number of products carried by road, water and pipeline showed an upward trend over the period given, while for the railway, it fluctuated significantly. Road has been the dominant way to transport goods in the 28 years while pipeline has been least preferred. At the starting period, goods transported by railway was slightly higher than it by water, however, around 1978, the number transported by water caught up with rail, and kept growing in the next decades.

About the pipeline, it began at around 5, and then peaked at about 25 in the 1980s before falling slightly to 20 in the last year. Likewise, approximately 38 million tons of goods carried by water in the first year after which the figure increased slowly from the 1980s to the 1990s and went up above 60 in the 2002.

On the other hand, products transported by railway witnessed a sharp decline from 40 to about 30 in the beginning, and then showed a variation in the 1990s, and went back to 40 eventually.