Integrated Transport Network of the Ussr

the sum total of all types of transport used in commodity circulation, that is, the means for passenger transport and for the delivery of production from points of manufacture to points of consumption. The socioeconomic unity of the USSR transportation network is made possible by the state ownership of all the basic types of transport; this makes it possible to develop them according to a unified economic plan. The integrated transport network of the USSR consists of rail, river, sea, motor-vehicle, air, and pipeline (oil, oil-products, and gas pipelines) transport, as well as high-voltage power lines. Rolling stock and all equipment needed for transport are also included in the integrated transport network of the USSR. Therefore, it is more correct to speak not of an integrated transport network, as is the custom, but of an integrated transport system. In an integrated transport network each type of transport is assigned a role where utilization yields a maximum effect. This is the goal of the transport policy of the socialist state. The question of how to move energy carriers most effectively—whether hard or liquid fuel should be shipped by universal types of transport; whether liquid and gaseous fuel should be moved through pipes; whether fuel should be burned in place and electric energy transferred by wires—is decided on a comprehensive basis. It is because of the need for this comprehensive decision-making that pipeline transport as well as high-voltage power lines are included in the integrated transport network.

A strong air transport system and well-developed motor-vehicle and gas pipeline transport networks have been created in the USSR. The cities have trolleybus and subway transportation. The network of trunk-line oil and gas pipelines and highways with paved surfaces has grown greatly. The railroad network for general use has almost been doubled in size. As a result of the increasingly rapid development of new types of transport, there has been a marked change in the share of individual types of transport in the total freight and passenger traffic of the USSR compared to the prewar period (see Table 1).

Railroad transport plays the basic role in internal freight traffic. This is explained by the physical, geographic, economic, and historical features of the development of the USSR. However, with further development of new types of transport, the share of railroads in freight traffic will gradually decline in the future. An important task of the integrated transport network of the USSR is the further improvement of coordination in the operation of separate types of transport, including the more efficient distribution of shipments between the forms of transportation and the improvement of organization of mixed shipments involving several types of transport; the latter will be accomplished through the creation of integrated technological operating processes, primarily at junction points of different types of transport.