TRANSPORTATION NETWORK The transportation network of the United States includes trains and railways, trucks and highways, barges and river channels, and airplanes and runways. The choice of carriers depends on how much of what commodity is being moved where, and when it needs to reach its destination. Air travel is fastest while barges are slowest; trucks and trains a re rarely detained by weather and travel throughout the count ry. Barges are the most fuel efficient but are limited by t h e season of the year and the available navigable wa ter ways.
To move one ton of cargo one mile is called a ton mile, and barges are the most fuel efficient, moving 407 ton miles per gallon of fuel compared to 208 ton miles per gallon by rail, 90 ton miles per gallon by truck, and 5 ton miles per gallon by air. These are industry wide averages provided by the Minnesota Department of Transportation . Let's follow one cargo, wheat for instance, on its journ~y from field to market. Wheat grown in the upper- midwest is transported from local elevators to grain terminals by truck or railroad. Part of this wheat is then hauled to mills in the area to be made into flour and other products. Another large part of the wheat is transported to barges waiting on the Mississippi River to carry it on to other terminals down the river to the Gulf of Mexico. Here it may then be transferred to ocean going vessels for shipment to ports around the world . Barges are an important link in the transportation CARRIER
network.
US Army Corps of Engineers St. Paul District