Compare and contrast the transport planning models for passenger and freight transport

100+ word responses to each student ( 2 responses). Must be positive response, not critical of work. Also, a question about the topic must be asked to the student.

Main question for reference:

Compare and contrast the transport planning models for passenger and freight transport. This may require you to additional research in the online Library or Internet.

Student 1:

Transportation, most often think freight movement when the word transportation comes to mind however, that is not always the case. Passenger transportation models can look very similar to the freight models with a few minor differences. When dealing with freight such as boxes and containers there does not need to be any consideration put into comfort. Unlike passengers who require comfort items such as cushioned seats, luggage storage, power outlets, food, drinks and you definitely cannot just stack them up. A terminal is another place that we can easily see differences between passenger and freight transportation. Freight terminals depending where they are located and what they are storing may not have air conditioning, heat or even finished walls at a minimum. This would not work for passengers, as they need a climate-controlled area where they can view a comfortable relaxed atmosphere instead of sitting on the ground staring at a metal beam holding up the steel roof like pallets and containers do. Cargo also has to receive physical attention by personnel or equipment if there are any changes in loading or unloading locations spending more time and labor to make it happen. Passengers on the other hand can marshal themselves to places of loading and unloading even if there are changes in location. The modes of travel are generally the same between cargo and passenger as they both use planes, trains, automobiles and ships to travel. Just as we learned different bundling techniques that can apply to passenger, transportation when planning routes and schedules. Overall whether it is passengers or cargo a need exist for transportation from point A to point B. however, one is just more focused on safety and comfort than the other.

Student2:

Transport planning focuses on the public provision and financing of transportation assets and typically addresses specific problems or broad transport concerns at a local level or preoccupated at a lower tier of government (Rogrigue, Slack, & Notteboom, 2017).  When it comes to planning models for passenger and freight transport there are differences and similarities between the two.  According to our text book both models for freight and passenger are structured relatively the same based on six phases.  In comparison both have 1) productive and attraction: estimation of freight volume for each zone, 2) distribution: origin-destination matrix of transport flow, 3) mode choice: decision by which mode and means transport takes place, 4) traffic conversion: conversion of transport volume from tons to vehicle trips, 5) assignment: network are loaded with the trip matrices, and 6) calibration and validation: comparison with observed traffic to validated the model results (Konings, 2008).

There are fundamental differences between passengers and freight transport systems since they are commonly move in separate modes.  When it comes to passengers transport they can board and transfer modes without assistance whereas freight has to be loaded and unloaded for a transfer.  The information and action process with passengers can be actioned without assistance whereas as with freight the information has to processed through the logistic managers.  Logistic managers have to make to choices for the freight during transport whereas as passengers are can make choices between the transport modes without any assistance.  The travel accommodation for passengers are related to comfort and safety compared to freight requires limited accommodations (Rogrigue, Slack, & Notteboom, 2017).