Journul of Transport Geography 1994 2(l) 3-18

Spatial characteristics of
transportation hubs: centrality
and intermediacy

Douglas K. Fleming
Department of Geography, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA

Yehuda Hayuth
Department of Geography, University of Haifa, Mt. Carmel, Haifu, Israel, 31905

Centrality and intermediacy are identified in this article as spatial qualities that enhance the
traftic levels of transportation hubs, and hence indicate which places are strategically located
within transportation systems. The local, regional, national, continental or hemispheric
centrality of a city has a fundamental impact on the city’s own size and function and on its
traffic-generating powers. Intermediacy, while it may reflect a natural geographical ‘in
betweenness’, is a spatial quality that needs to be defined in the specific context of contemporary
or prospective transportation systems and networks. Intermediate places can be given extra
traffic if they are favoured by transport carriers as connecting hubs or relay points in the
system. Passenger traffic data at US airports and container trafftc at US and foreign seaports
are used to illustrate these concepts of strategic commercial location. In many instances we are
able to differentiate between true originaestination and connecting traffic, giving a rough idea
of the comparative contributions of the centrality and intermediacy factors to the traffic totals.
It is no surprise that all large transportion hubs possess, at some scale and to some degree, both
locational attributes - centrality and intermediacy.

Keywords: transportation hub, centrality, intermediacy. true origin-destination traffic, relay ports

Our late professor, Edward Ullman, once reflected to a subsequent empirical focus on commercial
that the essential intellectual contribution of human airport and seaport traffic.
geography might be summarized by the concepts of The volume of traffic moving in, out and through
site and situation (Ullman, 1954, p, 13). Ullman was a city’s airport and seaport is, at least in part, a
fond of the situational perspective from which reflection of the quality of the city’s location. We
locations were defined and explained in relational shall use the term ‘transportation hub’, defined
terms. In this light the primary explanatory factor broadly as a city with its attendant transportation
for Chicago’s location - in fact, its very existence - facilities and activities. More specifically in this
would be the productivity of the Middle West, not its study, we shall refer to the airport and seaport
lakefront site (Ullman, 1941, p. 203). Also, in his components of the hub city’s traffic.’ In the evalua-
preference of the relative to the absolute, Ullman tion of the traffic impact of a hub’s location, it is
would have joined Schaefer and Bunge in saying: important to identify initial origins and ultimate
‘Locations are not unique. The closer one is to destinations of the traffic. We have made a basic
Chicago, the more Chicago-like one’s location’ distinction when possible between true origin-
(Bunge, 1966, p. 100). destination (0 and D) traffic and connecting (ie,
This paper is concerned with ‘situation’ since the
external relationships of cities that have become
nodes of transportation activity are the very essence
of the strategic commercial location we wish to ’ The Federal Aviation Agency has defined a transportation
discuss. Our objective is to identify the general huh as a city or urbanized area served by one or more local
airports. We expand this definition to include seaports, and WC
spatial qualities of a ‘good location’ with respect to
wish to emphasize not only the city and its traffic-generating
present and potential trade and transport systems. powers, but also the hub transportation facilities, eg, airports
We pursue this first along conceptual lines, leading and seaports, from which the traffic routes radiate.

0966923/94/010003-16 @ 1994 Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd

Sputial characteristics of transportution hubs: D. K. Fleming and Y. Huyuth

flow-through) traffic.’ The former reflects the hub Thus Michael Chisholm carried concentric rings to
city’s own traffic-generating power that comes from continental if not global scale and many scholars
its size and function as well as its location. The latter have played with hierarchies of hexagons (Chisholm.
reflects extra activity levels conveyed to the hub by 1962, Chs 5, 8; Isard, 1956, p. 270; Losch, 1967, Ch.
the carriers’ choice of this location for operational 11 and Figure 28). In these studies,it is the situation.
geographical emphasis within their transportation or relative location of the market centre and its
systems. external relationships, that is emphasized. A certain
The two concepts of spatial relationship that we amount of productive land supports a market ccntre
consider most pertinent to the strategically located and ‘the center exists because essential services must
transportation hub are centrality and intermediacy. be performed for the surrounding land’ (Ullman,
The latter is a term we use to describe locations 1941, p. 203). Von Thiinen, Christaller, Losch and
between important origins and destinations - loca- others sought evidence for this sort of thing primarily
tions that are chosen as waystops, route junctions. at the ‘local’ level. Germany and Iowa were favourite
break-in-bulk points. gateways, etc.” These concepts locales.” As a corollary to their collection and
have abstract, relational meaning as well as clear, distribution function and their geographic centrality,
geographical connotation. Central places, by defini- the market centres in these models were the foci of
tion, contain the generalizable locational attribute of local transportation activity. In other words, the
centrality; en route places contain the generalizable centres, by the very nature of the central place
attribute of intermediacy, Every large commercial models, are strategically located transport nodes at
place. for instance every large US city, has, at some microscale, and this means that the centres take on
scale and to some degree, both of these locational the quality of intermediacy too. From the perspective
attributes. Certainly a large portion of Chicago’s air of other points in the region, the central place is on
passenger boardings on commercial airlines can be the way to many other places and a gateway to
attributed, ultimately, to Chicago’s size and function distant places outside the region.
as a central place for the Midwest while another The concept of centrality can be carried to higher
large portion reflects Chicago’s intermediacy levels of geographical generalization without all the
manifested in the airline’s choice of it as a connect- other trappings of central place theory. There has
ing hub.’ been, it is true, much experimentation with logically
constructed hierarchies of hexagons. While Losch,
for instance, took great interest in the economic
Centrality rationale for such patterns, other scholars such as
Long ago, Christaller noted that seaports very often Bunge have focused more on the geometry and
become central settlements (Christaller, 1966, mathematics of central place systems. The historian,
pp. 1617). The concept of centrality is strikingly Brinton, applied the hexagon to the entire territory
illustrated in the undistorted geometry of the Von of France, suggesting that ‘the hexagon. geometric,
Thiinen and Christaller models. The intuitive appeal symmetrical, neatly centered, uniform. suggesting
of these symmetrical patterns of circles and hexagons permanence, is a fine symbol for the centripetal
and their underlying economic geographic logic have drive of centuries of French history’ (Brinton, 1968,
led to a search for examples at all geographic scales.5 p. 9). Fernand Braudel (1990, pp. 2&21), confirms
that the French have given considerable attention to
’ True origin-destination traffic begins or ends the air or ocean this same geometrical figure. But France is, in actual
journey at the hub in question. Connecting traffic is simply territorial configuration, a ‘top-heavy’ hexagon. The
passing through the hub - eg passengers changing planes or
containers changing ships. Unfortunately, this two-category
‘centre’ is skewed to the north. The line joining the
distinction is not wholly comprchensivc and clear-cut. Later in northern apex (near Calais) of the hexagon to the
this paper. when referring to airline traffic (see Tuhle 2), we southern apex (in the Pyrenees) intersects the line
broaden the meaning of ‘connecting’ to include all ‘mid-journey’ joining the north-western apex (near Brest) to the
passengers ‘flowing through’ the hub, sometimes neither deplaning
north-eastern apex (near Strasbourg) at Paris.
nor cnplaning at the hub, but ‘on board’ the departing flights.
Airports. seaports and city chambers of commerce often aggregate At the national scale, again, Mackinder once
true 0 and D and connecting traffic data, obscuring the exact noted that Peter the Great made St Petersburg the
nature of the movements into. out of or through the hub. capital of Russia ‘in the teeth of a hostile geography
7 Our colleague, Jonathan Mayer, suggested the term ‘inter- . and for two centuries the great Russian Empire
mediacy’. Another collcague, Richard Merrill, thought that ‘in- was ruled from this “magnificent folly”. But in the
bctweenness’ might bc prcferablc since it had a more spatial and
Icss temporal connotation.
end it was the centripetal pull of Moscow that won
’ Over half of Chicago’s domestic passenger enplanements are the day’ (Parker, 1982, pp. 122-123). Moscow was
connecting or flow-through air passengers. The remainder are certainly more central to European Russia.
‘true origin’ passengers who begin their air journey at Chicago.
’ The most efficient shape for a tributary arca for a market ’ See, for instance, Losch (1967, Ch. 22) for comment\ on Iowa
centre is a circle. Sets of spatially adjacent circles leave gap5 of and the American Middle West. Christallcr’s major opus Die
unserved spaces whereas sets of adjacent hexagons allow all two- cer~trulen Ortc in .Siiddeutsch/and names his regional focus. Von
dimensional space to bc scrvcd keeping the demand per unit of Thiincn was an cntatc manager, farming near Restock in northern
arca as high as possible (xc Liisch. 1967). Germany.

4
 Spatial characteristks of transportation hubs: D. K. Fleming and Y. Hayuth

The choice of capitals - seats of national or Amsterdam, Copenhagen, etc capitalize on the
imperial political power - has been coloured by centrality of their home hubs vis-ri-vis the primary
rulers’ perceptions of centrality. Madrid, almost in hemisphere. In the 1990s ‘Heathrow is the busiest
the geographical centre of the Iberian peninsula, was international airport in the world, a giant interlining
the Castilian choice, in 1561, for a ‘liberated’ Spain crossroad, used by 70 airlines with services to some
(Minshull, 1990, p. 323). Berlin, lying in the heart 200 destinations worldwide’ (Reed, 1991, p. 29).
of the Prussian province of Brandenburg, was their London, of course, is central in a real functional
central-place choice (Dickinson, 1961, Ch. 13). sense to the booming south-eastern region of the
Losch, however, speaks of Leipzig’s centrality within UK, central also to the nation, central to the old
the territory of the Third German Reich: ‘Leipzig British Empire (to which transport lines extended)
. . . is the approximate centre of the basin that is and central to the primary hemisphere. Heathrow’s
bounded by the Erzgebirge range, the Thuringian busyness can be attributed in large part to these
Mountains and the Harz Mountains, all about sixty centralities at various geographical scales. The other
miles distant. It is also the central city of Germany; very important part of it is the perception of these
almost all of Germany lies within two hundred and centralities by the transportation carriers and. in
fifty miles of Leipzig . . and nearly the entire area consequence, their service offerings based on their
within that radius is German’ (Losch, 1967, p. 82). belief that London’s strategic location will engender
Losch goes on to observe that such centrally abundant true origin as well as connecting traffic.
located places often are ‘optimum transport points’.
Thus, for instance, the Berlin-Munich, Upper
Silesia-Ruhr and Hamburg-Prague-Vienna trunk
Intermediacy
railway lines intersect at Leipzig. A transportation hub acquires through its transport
Of course geometry is not the determining factor. function the spatial quality of intermediacy. lt may
Centrality can be induced by the artifice of be central but it is also intermediate. Local services
transportation-building. Thus Berlin really became may connect here with national and international
the great German transportation hub through rail- services. Often one mode of transportation connects
way, highway and canal-building efforts in the 19th here with another. Air travellers fron Yakima to
and early 20th centuries (Dickinson, 1961, Ch. 13). New York may be routed through Seattle, not
Road-building during the Louis XIV period assured because that itinerary is the geometrical-geographical
Paris of the leading role in France’s transportation ideal - it is not - but because the commercial carriers
system. Railway-builders in the 19th-century Austro- have decided to take them that way. Seattle’s
Hungarian realm saw that all lines led to Vienna just intermediacy in this case is completely artificial and
as Roman road-builders, long before, in Pax Romana the artifice can be changed suddenly if the carriers so
times, focused on Rome (Woytinsky and Woytinsky, decide. So it was with People’s Express at Newark.
1955, p. 331). Strategic locations were thereby Millions of people were routed through there but
manufactured. suddenly, with bankruptcy, service stopped and it
At the global scale there have been periodic was not immediately picked up by other airlines.
attempts to discover the ‘centre of human gravity’ on The level of one’s perspective - that is, the scale -
the Earth’s surface. Penck’s (1899) ‘land hemi- makes a difference too. The central aspects of
sphere’, centred near Nantes, contained most of the Heathrow-London’s location have already been
world’s population and industrial undertakings. This described. Remember, though, that London is near
late 19th-century conceptualization, objectively the ‘edge’ of Europe and, also, the edge of the
derived, is, by the nature of its geographic revela- Atlantic. Clearly it is an air gateway to the European
tions, Eurocentric. Perhaps it carries with it certain continent (Reed, 1991). Finally, if one adopts an
unwanted political and ideological baggage.’ Van intercontinental point of view, London is ‘on the
Zandt (1944, 4, p. 23) and Sealy (1957, Figure 1, way’ and not far from the great circle routes from
p. 24) recognized the transportation significance of North America to the Middle East and South Asia,
this ‘primary hemisphere’. According to simple great from Eastern USA to Eastern Europe, from the
circle mileages Europe is closer to most other Pacific Northwest to Africa, and so forth.*
important markets than any of its competitors in Cooley (1894), a leading transportation economist,
commerce. That is the way the world grew and it still noted the channelling influence that transportation
has important commercial implications. However, routes had on the location and development of trade
Europe is not close to or ‘central to’ the great centres.’ He viewed transportation as a ‘city-builder’
Asian population clusters today. Identification of and recognized the importance of ‘break-in-bulk’
centrality depends very much on the surface being
considered, the measurements being used and the
times of observation. ’ Finnair using Helsinki and SAS using Copenhagen have also
claimed their home bases as on the way to cverywhcrc in the
Major airlines based in London, Paris, Frankfurt, intercontinental context, this claim often appearing in their
advertisements.
’ See, for instance. Giddens (1987. Ch. 7). ’ As referenced in Ullman (1941. p. 202).

Journal of Transport Geography 1994 Volumr 2 Number I

Sputiul characteristics of transportation hubs: D. K. Fleming und Y. Hayuth

points where goods were shifted from one mode of traffic-generating type of intermediacy. In some
transport to another and where goods might be instances, however, there have been fortunate co-
stored, packaged, processed and often changed incidences of cheap fuel close to main corridors of
ownership, as well. All these processes took place, commerce at places of considerable traffic-generating
for instance, at major seaports. When the intermodal potential. Thus, cheap bunker oil at San Pedro Bay
itineraries of 2Oth-century commerce are plotted one attracted Panama Canal transiting Asia-bound
sees a general geographical logic behind the routeing steamships with the consequence of higher service
even though political or institutional factors can frequencies and more cargo lifting from Los Angeles
create some weird digressions from ‘the natural and Long Beach to East Asia.
path’ (Hayuth, 1987, Ch. 6). The seaports have an Technological advance can shift the geographical
intermediacy that at first glance may seem quite scale and significance of the intermediacy factor.
natural but any close examination of hinterland Thus Anchorage, before the Second World War an
connections would reveal some ‘unnatural’ and unimportant point for commercial air service, per-
seemingly tortuous paths and patterns of movement. ceived then as remote and dangerously far north,
Seaports also are gateways, leading on the sea side later became a necessary waystop on the northern
to overseas forelands and on the land side to transpacific air route. In early postwar years North-
tributary hinterlands (Weigend, 1958). Bird (1973) west Airlines used both Anchorage and Shemya in
noted that the idea of centrality can be retained but the Aleutians as waystops on the North Pacific route
an explanation of the port phenomenon requires between Seattle and Tokyo. As the range capabilities
consideration of gateway functions and concepts of of aircraft increased and as northern latitude naviga-
agglomeration and economies of scale. Intermediacy tion was perfected, Anchorage was first used by SAS
is, therefore, a port’s most expected situational as a stop on Copenhagen-Los Angeles flights, and
characteristic and one which most ports are con- then chosen by numerous European and Oriental
stantly striving to enhance. Ullman and others have airlines as an en route point on their ‘polar’ flights
also studied inland gateways for overland connecting Europe and the Far East. Finally, as the
commerce. ‘Transport centers . can serve as traffic between the Far East and Eastern USA
gateways between contrasting regions with contrast- gained enormously in volume, airlines found the
ing needs’ (Harris and Ullman, 1945, p. 280). Anchorage stop on the New York-Tokyo run. for
American cities like Omaha, Kansas City, instance, not much of a diversion from the non-stop
Minneapolis, St Louis, Louisville, Cincinnati have great circle track. Figure 1 depicts these relation-
all been mentioned in this context. All, in fact, have ships.
excellent transportation access to the historic ‘manu- Sampson offered a marvellous description of the
facturing core’ of the heavily industrialized north- Anchorage stop in the early 1980s: ‘Twice every day.
eastern USA. after midnight and in the afternoon, the airport fills
Some locations have very little but their inter- up with processions of lost souls from opposite ends
mediacy to recommend them as transport junctions. of the world. who stare at each other with the
Sargent, the commercial geographer, observed that familiar glazed dislocated look of passengers who
in 1912 Las Palmas and Tenerife, two ports in the have lost sight of place or time - Koreans on their
Canary Islands, had a shipping movement, nearly way to New York, Scandinavians flying to Los
7000 annual oceangoing vessel calls, that ranked Angeles, Japanese en rout<> for London’ (Sampson,
them with the great ports of the world. Las Palmas 1984, p. 12). But this was Anchorage when its
and Tenerife were coal bunkering ports very near intermediacy was most spectacular. when many
the convergence of some important intercontinental foreign carriers appreciated its ‘in-between‘ location.
shipping routes. A large part of the great stream of More recently, the ease of flying non-stop between
traffic between Europe and the Southern Hemi- Western Europe and East Asia and the removal of
sphere passed close to the islands (Sargent, 1930, pp. the political problem of Soviet air space have
3-7). eliminated the urgent need for the Alaskan waystop,
Scaly noted that some airports ‘owe their existence and there has been a notable reduction of passenger
purely to their strategic position, for no large service on this polar route.
markets are locally available’ (Scaly, 1957, pp. 18S- The intermediacy of a location may become even
186). Gander, Goose Bay, Shannon, Wake Island more significant with the rising efficiency of inter-
and others fit this description in earlier days of modal transportation. For example, as seaports
transoceanic air route-building when en route way- become primarily places of transit, with most of
stops were absolutely imperative. There is an Cooley’s break-in-bulk processes no longer per-
interesting parallel here with some of the steamer formed there, the geographical efficiency of the
coaling stations. Sealy reflected that some of these itinerary is likely to receive closer scrutiny (Fleming,
waystops were doomed to decline (as some have) as 1989). The scrutinizers will be the very large
aircraft performance progressed. The examples shippers and the very large inter-modal carriers.
above of technical stops by reason of range limita- experts in ‘total logistics’. The sites and situations of
tions and fuel needs do not usually reflect a revenue the seaports hoping to remain ‘on the beaten track’

6
 Spatial characteristics of transportation hubs: D. K. Fleming and Y. Hayuth

North Pole
Azimuthal Equidistant
Projectton
0 1250 Miles
I _1
I I
0 1250 2500 Km.

Figure 1 Anchorage’s intermediacy

will need constant attention. Both site and situation hubs? We have, so far, emphasized centrality and
can be improved by artifice (in the nicer sense of the intermediacy. Accessibility is a factor of obvious
word). importance within any transportation network but
accessibility is usually a ‘post facto’ attribute. A
location with large traffic-generating potential is
Other locational attributes
made accessible by the route-builders; occasionally,
What other descriptors of spatial relationships might however, the accessibility seems to have been an
be relevant to traffic volumes at transportation ‘afterthought’ on their part. As Ullman once pointed

Journal of Transport Geography 1994 Volume 2 Number I 7

Spatial churacteristics of transportation hubs: D. K. Fleming and Y. Hayuth

out, Peoria, Illinois and Lodz, Poland were bypassed

Table I Top 26 US domestic airports ranked by daily on-board
in the earlier days of railroad building and had then
passengers. year ending 30 June 1991
to be connected by spurs from the main lines
radiating from Chicago and Warsaw, respectively.“’ Total on-
A location endowed by fortuitous geographic circum- Flight board
departures passengers
stance with the qualities of centrality and/or inter-
Airport Code daily daily
mediacy is a prime candidate for manufactured
accessibility. The latter is very often not an innate, Chicago ORD x45 67 6Y2
original. underlying characteristic. Dallas-Fort Worth DFW 728 61 544
Proximity is a descriptor that requires elucidation Atlanta ATL 660 55 001
Los Angeles LAX 562 38 hY0
of specific context. Clearly the attribute of being
San Francisco SF0 468 36 446
close to a market or to a set of productive resources Denver DEN 41 I 33 366
is important in industrial location and can also be a Phoenix PHX 404 33 904
significant situational ‘city-building’ factor. Thus New York LGA 334 2s 944
proximity, specifically defined, can be, ultimately, a St Louis STL 343 2s 893
Newark EWR 351 25 592
contributor to strategic commercial location and to Detroit DTW 358 2s 419
the traffic volumes we are using to measure it. One Minneapolis-St Paul MSP 312 23 032
of the clearest examples is the proximity of a hub to Boston BOS 30 I 23 770
tourist attractions, explaining unusually high air Las Vegas LAS 263 22 794
Honolulu HNL 221 22 460
traffic levels at Orlando, Las Vegas and other
Pittsburgh PIT 341 21 9x7
pleasure capitals. We might also note that proximity Orlando MC0 228 21 4x0
of a seaport site to deep water can be a microscale Seattle SEA 355 21 I25
determinant of modern ‘outport’ development. Charlotte CLT 337 20 73x
Proximity, in the sense of closeness to a set of Houston IAH 2x2 20 232
Miami MIA 276 19 861
competitive locations, can have a negative impact on Washington DCA 250 19 100
traffic levels as Taaffe (1956, pp. 219-238) observed Philadelohia PHL 261 IX 623
more than 35 years ago in his seminal paper on US New Yo;k JFK IX’S IS 313
air hubs. The traffic-shadow effect that a dominant Salt Lake City SLC 206 IS 043
San Diego SAN 188 I4 96X
hub has on its rivals is a phenomenon that is
applicable to more than one mode of transportation. Source: DOT DB 1A & FORM 41
Hayuth’s (1981, pp. 16&176) work on load centring
suggests that the convergence of container traffic on
one seaport can be a multimodal conspiracy that puts
smaller rival ports in the shade.
Chicago’s centrality and built on it. It has been a
wonderful base for distributors to serve the region
Air hubs
and the nation. Transportation carriers recognized
In the first of the two case studies we explore the the traffic potential emanating from this centrality
situational characteristics of US air hub locations in and reinforced it with their network building.
an effort to understand what constitutes a ‘strategic As a well-developed transportation hub, Chicago
commercial location’ for air travel. has extra traffic conveyed to it simply by the
Most of the relationships that define the ‘situation’ transport carrier’s choice of this location for opera-
of nodes in transportation systems are ever-changing. tional emphasis. In terms of total passenger enplane-
Changes in transport technology shrink the world, ments and total daily flight departures Chicago’s
eliminate the need for waystops, diminish the utility O’Hare is the busiest US commercial airport (see
of formerly active junctions or connecting points, Table I and Figure 2). When United Airlines, for
and so forth. There are changes too in all the instance, uses O’Hare as the number one connecting
business and personal ties between places. And, point in their domestic system they put Chicago on
significantly, there are changes in the transport the itinerary of millions of air travellers each year,
carriers’ perceptions of which places in their networks whether the travellers want to go there or not.”
are most strategic for operational and for marketing Given the geographic realities of city spacing in the
purposes. USA, and the travel markets and hinterlands to be
In the application of the concepts of centrality and served, Chicago is a perfectly logical choice, so one
immediacy to air hub location, let us first consider might argue that there is nothing really unnatural or
Chicago in both national and regional settings. ‘extra’ about the connecting or ‘mid-journey’ traffic
Chicago is a large city, a great commercial centre
and fortuitously located to serve the productive ” It should be noted that we are referring here to an airport.
Middle West. Commercial enterprises have used not the entire air hub which would include a community of local
airports. In a sense, Tuhle I understates the impact of hubs like
Miami, Washington and Houston, whose alternative airports do
I” Ullman lccturcs at University of Washington (1962). not quite make the list.

8
 Spatial characteristics of transportation hubs: D. K. Fleming and Y. Hayuth

‘1
:_ -r---i
I
/’ I
I

___: :
I
‘,

Figure 2 Top 26 US domestic airports (second quarter 1991)

activity. However, there was a choice and there were interesting difference between Chicago’s middle-of-
alternatives. the-network location for most of the airlines serving
From the beginning of commercial airline network- it and end-of-the-network location for most of the
building in the USA, Chicago was an important railroads. Airlines, such as United, have been able
origin, destination and waystop and was perceived as to use Chicago as a waystop on coast-to-coast flights,
such by the airlines and by the mail-contracting and whereas Chicago has been essentially a terminal or
route-awarding authorities, By the early 1930s mail peripheral point in the individual railroad networks.
contract awards enabled three emerging trans- From the perspective of the transcontinental traveller,
continental carriers - American, United and TWA - however, Chicago epitomized intermediacy either
to offer passenger service coast to coast with for air or rail travel. By air the passenger often
different itineraries but all containing the Chicago en needed to change planes, usually staying with the
route stop (Davies, 1988, pp. 181-186). Chicago’s same airline, whereas by rail it was necessary to
intermediacy in the continental context was well transfer from one train to another, one railroad
established. Forty years later, in the mid-1970s, station to another and one railroad system to
Chicago was still the largest hub in terms of another. Chicago’s O’Hare airport owes its traffic
passenger boardings for each of these three trans- activity in almost equal parts to its hypothetical
continental airlines (Fleming, 1976, p. 26). qualities of centrality and intermediacy if one associ-
The airlines were not the first transportation ates outgoing true origin and incoming true destina-
carriers to recognize Chicago’s strategic commercial tion traffic with centrality and connecting traffic (a
location. In the 19th century the railroads converged category broadened to include all flow-through or
on this city making it the greatest focus of the North ‘mid-journey’ passengers) with intermediacy. Table
American railroad systems, as many geographers 2 indicates that 56% of O’Hare’s 1991 traffic was
pointed out long ago, and as historian William ‘mid-journey’ passengers, those passing through.
Cronon has recently underlined in his account of the The case of Chicago illustrates quite clearly that the
development of Chicago as a great rail hub. ideal central place may well be an ideal place for
Nineteenth-century city boosters spoke as if Chicago transport connections too. It is not surprising, then,
were ‘nature’s choice’ (Cronon, 1991). There is an that every large US city has, at some scale and to

Journal of Transport Geography 1994 Volume 2 Number I 9

Spatial characteristics of’ transportation hubs: D. K. Fleming and Y. Hayuth

Table 2 Intermediacy: year cnding 30 June 1991 awarders, the slot allocators - have had a good deal
to say about intermediacy. In the past, government
Mid-journey Mid-journey policy influenced, if not determined, airline choice
passengers passengers of alternatives and limited the options. With or
Airport Code daily as % of total
without airline regulation, the intermediacy factor
Dallas-Fort Worth DFW 42 518 60 can be transitory, artificial and difficult to predict.
Atlanta ATL 37 Y60 60 From recent traffic data we are able to compose a
Chicago ORD 37 Y43 56 fuller picture of domestic air passenger activity at US
Denver DEN 18 Y28 55
I6 366 79
airports. Our data differentiate between true 0 and
Charlotte CLT
St Louis STL IS 392 59 D traffic and flow-through traffic, the former
Pittsburgh PIT I4 so7 66 suggesting the air hub’s or the city region’s inherent,
Minneapolis-St Paul MSP 12 x54 54 shall we say ‘natural’. traffic generating clout and the
Houston IAH IO x40 53 latter revealing the ‘extra’ activity conveyed by car-
Salt Lake City SLC IO 034 67
Raleigh-Durham RDU x 4x5 68
riers’ choice of mid-journey points in their systems. I3
Cincinnati CVG 7 273 62 When the 100 top US domestic airports, ranked in
Memphis MEM 7 240 67 terms of revenue passenger traffic generated, are
Nashville BNA 6 004 55 plotted on a base map the general pattern conforms
Dayton DAY 2 823 51
quite reasonably to what North American geo-
Sourw: DOT DB IA & FORM 41. graphers would expect (see Figure 3). City size -
eg the huge city region of Los Angeles - and city
some degree, both locational attributes: centrality function - eg Las Vegas, a small city with addictive
and intermediacy; and that, in Chicago’s case, both attractions - clearly express themselves. The
attributes are strong traffic-generating factors. densities and spacings of the major airports conform
Atlanta’s location fascinates the airlines - as it did to a well-known geography. The 26 busiest airports
the railroads before them. It is Atlanta’s centrality in in terms of total passenger activity are listed in Table
the south-east that is most striking. It seems the ideal I and have been mapped on Figure 2.
distribution point. And, of course, a central place, When we examine true origin traffic as a per-
reinforced by a hub-and-spoke system, acquires centage of the total we find that I5 of the top 100
intermediacy. There are jokes about it - changing airports have more flow-through than true origin
planes at Atlanta en route to hell. Enlarging our traffic. These are listed in Tuble 2. The locations of
vision to the eastern half of the USA we find that these prominent mid-journey (intermediate) hubs
Atlanta is not far off track from Chicago to Miami have been perceived by the major airlines as
and from New York to Houston. Atlanta is strategic- strategic. Their airports have been chosen to
ally positioned too to draw passengers in from places perform the connecting function, thereby endowing
like Jacksonville, Savannah and Charleston en route them with the intermediacy attribute whether or not
to the west coast. With long-range aircraft Atlanta their locations are geometrically/geographically
can serve as a US gateway to Europe. Delta ideal for all end-to-end itineraries. A circle of radius
recognized all these geographical relationships and, 350 miles circumscribed about a centre ,just south-
even 20 years ago (before deregulation), despite east of Louisville contains 10 of the 15 airports
head-to-head competition with Eastern, Delta en- orientated towards en route traffic: Chicago,
planed more passengers yearly at Hartsfield airport Pittsburgh, Dayton, Cincinnati, Raleigh-Durham,
in Atlanta than any other airline at any other airport Charlotte, Atlanta, Nashville, Memphis and St
in the world. Even so, a lot of this is the result of Louis. Incidentally, the main complexing hubs of all
Delta’s choice. Delta gave Atlanta intermediacy by the major small-package air freight companies fall
developing hub complexes of connecting flights within this same circle.” The entire circle is
there. According to one senior executive of the strategically positioned and visibly central to that
airline, had Atlanta been uncooperative and un- portion of the USA east of the 100th meridian where
willing to expand airport facilities. Delta could have 72 of the top-ranked 100 airports are located (see
considered Birmingham or Charlotte as feasible Figuw 3). Twenty years ago Taaffe and Gauthier
alternatives. ” Tt will be noted that we have calculated and mapped accessibility rankings based
introduced here a site consideration and a rather on minimal travel times for 100 major US urban
important one. Can the airport accommodate addi- centres - both interstate highway and railroad
tional connecting traffic‘? Are gates and take-off/ accessibility. The inner contour line of their region
landing slots available’? Why not go where your main
competitors are not if it is a major improvement in ” Data on IYYI passcngcr traffic at top 100 US airports come
site without too much deterioration of situation? It from Department of Transportation DB IA and Form 31;
should be mentioned at this point that the regulatory printout thanks to Northwest Airlines.
authorities - the mail contractors, the route ” For instance: Fcdcral Express - Memphis; Airhornc Freight
- Wilmington, Ohio; UPS - Louisville; Emcry - Dayton;
” Personal corrcspondcncc from R.S. Maurcr. Senior VP. Burlington Northern Air Freight - Fort Wayne; CF Air Freight -
Delta Air Lines, 8 July 1076. Indinnnpolis: DHL Airways - Cincinnati.

10
 Spatial characteristics of transportation hubs: D. K. Fleming and Y. Hayuth

0 > 15000 On Board Passengers Daily

0 .Z 15000 On Board Passengers Daily

l > 15000 On Board Passengers Dailywim True

0 and D Passengers < 50% Total On Board
0 c 15000 On Board Passengers Daily with True
0 and D Passengers c 50% Total On Board

Hawaii
v 0
United States
350 700 Nautical Miles
1
c?D
Puerto RICO
0 350 700 1050 1400 Km

Figure 3 Top 100 domestic airports (second quarter 1991)

of maximum accessibility on each map accords trations at Dallas and Atlanta, respectively. In 1991
geographically with our ‘circle’ (Taaffe and over 80% of Kansas City’s total air passenger
Gauthier, 1973, pp. 150-151). activity was true 0 and D traffic, belying the
Somewhat west of this circle, and by mileage impression of intermediacy that the map might
measurements more ‘mid-country’ on east-west give. Is
transcontinental routes, are Minneapolis-St Paul,
Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston, favoured en route
hubs for Northwest, American and Continental, Container ports
respectively. The curiosity, mid-country, is Kansas Our second case study explores the situational
City, a place well situated in the USA, geometrically, characteristics of container port locations in an effort
for east-west as well as north-south complexing to understand what constitutes a ‘strategiccommercial
operations. However, the airlines have not conferred location’ in intercontinental intermodal transporta-
on it the intermediacy that its geographical location tion. Port hinterland studies by Sargent, Bird,
seemingly deserves. Site considerations, reportedly, Weigend, Mayer and others lead us to believe that
are not the problem. TWA, Braniff and Eastern the concepts of centrality and intermediacy can be
once gave Kansas City considerable attention but
never developed it into a truly prominent connecting
IS The desertion of hubs by reason of bankruptcy of a major
hub. That Kansas City was a convenient ‘in-between’
carrier usually has an adverse effect on hub activity that is only
spot on the map was not enough. Connecting traffic temporary. Other carriers can step in as replacements. Concern
without the supplement of a dominant market share about weaknesses in an airline’s market share of the true 0 and D
of the Kansas City hub 0 and D traffic was not traffic, or simply the low level of true 0 and D to supplcmcnt
enough. TWA concentrated instead on St Louis, a connecting traffic, is quite common. Northwest at Memphis,
USAir at Dayton, and American at Raleigh-Durham have
larger urban area where they achieved market recently worried about weak true 0 and D components of their
dominance. Braniff and Eastern, while they were traffic at these chosen connecting hubs. (Conversation in 1992 with
still in business, had more important service concen- C. Wheeler, analyst, Northwest Airlines.)

Jruwtal of Transport Geograph_v 1994 Volume 2 Number I 11

Spatial characteristics of transportation hubs: D. K. Fleming and Y. Hayuth

applied to seaports as well as to airports; and that recognized the traffic potential emanating from
strategic location can be defined in terms of these these strategic locations and have reinforced them
two locational characteristics. The port hinterland with their network building.
provides one of the best real-world examples of the Ports, historically, were created as regional or
functional or nodal region. The port’s nodality in its national gateways to serve and promote the economic
regional tributory area is akin to centrality and its role development of their respective regions or countries.
as a gateway between the region and transoceanic With the globalization of the world economy and the
points (its forelands) reflects its intermediacy world-wide restructuring of production and distribu-
(Bird, 1971; Mayer, 1957; Sargent, 1939; Weigend, tion, seaports are frequently reassessing their own
1958). role in a global system. Ports are becoming cogs in
Most of the relationships that define the ‘situation’ the wheel mobilized by a world economic system
of nodes in intermodal container systems have (McJunkin, 1990). Container lines such as Evergreen
changed very rapidly. Changes in transport tech- or Senator Lines are offering full round-the-world
nology, in communications and control systems and services. Hapag-Lloyd and Nedlloyd Lines view the
in regulatory framework have altered traffic hinter- transpacific route as their missing link in their
lands, changed global itineraries, redistributed port respective global systems whereas Mitsui OSK is
shares of general cargo movements and so forth. currently trying to enter the transatlantic trade in
Commercial linkages have changed and, as in the order to close the final link in their global network.
case of air transport, there are changes in the The introduction of integrated transport services
transport carriers’ perceptions of which places in on a global scale and the creation of multimodal
their networks are most strategic. transport companies operating in a dercgulatcd
The city-port, like the air hub, has its own traffic- environment allow carriers much more control over
generating power that comes from its size, function the cargo and its routeing and greater latitude in port
and location within its ‘region’. Thus Los Angeles is selection than in the past (Hayuth, 1987). The
a large city, a great commercial centre and fortuitously carriers evaluate the centrality of a port or its
located to serve the Pacific Southwest (PSW) region. intermediacy in light of its expanded network,
As a transportation hub too, Los Angeles has extra sometimes on a global scale. A carrier operating on
traffic conveyed to it simply by the transport a given trade route, Southeast Asia to the US East
carrier’s choice of this location for operational Coast for example, is primarily concerned with the
emphasis. When American President Line (APL), selection of an efficient and marketable general
for instance, favours this PSW port of call in their transport itinerary. Specific port choice, in a sense,
transpacific trade, Los Angeles must be transited is part of this broader concern. Traditionally most of
each year by hundreds of thousands of containers the seaborne trade from Hong Kong or Singapore to
bound for the Midwest or the US Gulf region. The the US North Atlantic region was routed via the
commodity shippers have virtually no input in this Panama Canal. With the development of intermodal
routeing choice. Given the geographic reality of the transportation and the land-bridge concept a lot of
strong local California market and the geographic this trade was diverted to a combined land and sea
fact that Seattle, Portland, Oakland and Los Angeles operation interfacing at US West Coast ports. The
are within a hundred miles of equidistance by rail latter received a major traffic boost at the expense of
from Chicago, Los Angeles is a perfectly logical port US East Coast ports (Fleming, 1989). As mentioned,
choice, so one might again argue that there is one of the enabling factors here was the new
nothing really ‘extra’ about the connecting traffic efficiency of unit train and twin-stack container
activity. However. there was a choice and there were service overland so that the traditional cost dis-
alternatives. advantages of land as opposed to water transport
Los Angeles in the transpacific trade and, on the have diminished.
other coast, New York in the transatlantic trade are In the past two years. several US East Coast ports
not only central to local hinterlands of huge import- have launched aggressive marketing efforts to re-
ance but in the age of intermodality they can reach capture some of the cargo that they had lost to the
completely across the continent by means of unit West Coast ports with the advent of intermodality.
trains and twin-stack rail service at comparatively The objective of these East Coast ports is to
reasonable land transportation cost. In this sense convince shipping lines to begin a new direct service
they are also gateways imbued with intermediacy at from Southeast Asia to the US East Coast via the
a continental scale. Both transport centres have Suez Canal, which is a shorter route from most
been great bases for distributors to serve their Southeast Asian points. Partly as a result of these
respective regions and the nation. There were earlier efforts, on 1 December 1991 Neptune Orient Lines
indications of the distributional role. New York, for (NOL) launched its new Asia East Coast express
instance, leapt ahead of rival ports on the eastern (AEX) service. With six large container vessels this
seaboard by being chosen as the main distribution ‘against the grain’ service at lo-day intervals operates
centre for imports from Europe after the War of from Kaohsiung to Hong Kong and Singapore, then
1812 (Albion, 1939). Transportation carriers have directly to New York, via the Suez Canal (see Figure

12
 Spatial characteristics of transportation hubs: D. K. Fleming and Y. Hayuth

NewYork

Figure 4 Singapore-New York alternative maritime routes

4~). NOL claims that their AEX transit time from off Pacific Coast port transit traffic. In any event, it
Singapore to New York is 22 days, the fastest in the illustrates, first, the global scale of routeing in liner
trade, and faster than the intermodal route via the trade today; second, it emphasizes the ever-changing
West Coast ports. The ‘all water’ distance from and relative status of the intermediacy factor in the
Singapore to New York via the Suez Canal is 10 169 selection of ports of call.
nautical miles and via the Panama Canal is 12 522 Restructuring of the world economy has redefined
miles; the distance of the intermodal route via Los the strategic location of ports on a global scale.
Angeles is 9801 nautical miles and via Seattle 8920 Table3 illustrates the remarkable growth of container
nautical miles (see Figure 46). Other lines are traffic in the Far East, particularly in Southeast
following this step with great interest. En route Asia. This illustrates a shift at the hemispheric level
European cargo prospects add to the potential of the of trade activities from the Atlantic, a traditional
AEX route by providing an attractive stopover arena of world trade, to the Pacific and its ‘rim’ of
(Freight Transport Association, 1991). The AEX fast-growing economies. Market forces are con-
route, reversing traditional directions, could drain sequently shaping ship deployment and routeing

Journul of Transport Geography 1994 Volume 2 Number I 13

Spatiul characteristics of trnnsportation hubs: D. K. Fleming and Y. Hayuth

1
Figure 5 Top 20 container ports 1990

Table 3 World container port traffic by region Table 4 Top 20 container ports IYYO (twenty-foot equivalent
units)
1980 1989
% of % of Change
Millions world Millions world I 989-90
of TEUs” traffic of TEUs” traffic Rank Port 1990 1989 (%)

North America 9.4 26 1S.Y 20 I Singapore 5 223 550 4 364 400 20

Europe 11.3 31 20.2 26 2 Hong Kong 5 100 637 3 463 709 I4
Japan 3.3 Y 1.4 Y 3 Rotterdam 366SYSS 36172Y5 I
S.E. Asia NIEs” 4.7 13 16.3 20 4 Kaohsiung 3494631 33x2512 3
ASEAN’ 0.8 I 3.h 5 5 KotX 2 595 040 2 4% 964 6
Asia total 8.Y 2s 2x.2 36 6 Busan 2348475 2158X2X Y
7 Los Angeles 2 1 I6 404 2 056 62Y 3
Source: Containerisation Infemutionul Yearbook (1082. 1901). 8 Hamburg I 968 YX6 I 727 609 IO
“TEU = twenty-foot equivalent unit (see footnote 17). Y New York/
“Newly industrialized economies: ROK, Taiwan, Hong Kong, New Jersey I 8Y843h I YXX 31x -5
Singapore. IO Kcelung I 807 271 I 7x7 Oh7 I
“Thailand. Malaysia. Indonesia, Philippines. II Yokohama I 647 801 I 506 33x Y
I2 L.ong Beach I SYXO78 IS75 II7 I
decisions globally. The Port of New York/New I3 Tokyo I 555 I40 I 438 523 x
I4 Antwcrp 154’) I13 1373746 5
Jersey, the world’s largest container port during the 15 Fclixstowe 1 417 694 I 35’1804 -1
1960s and the 197Os, has been pushed back to ninth I6 San Juan I 381 403 I 2x9 031 7
position in the 1990 rankings (see Table 4 and Figure I7 Seattle I I71 001 I 040 XYO I3
5). The Port of Los Angeles has recently replaced IX Bremen/
Brcmerhaven I 163347 I 203 YSS -3
the Port of New York/New Jersey as the top-ranked I I24 123 I oYOSY7 3
1’) Oakland
US container port and this change would be even 20 Bangkok I 018 290 024 040 IO
more dramatic if the traffic data of Long Beach and
Los Angeles, ad’oining ports in San Pedro Bay, Source: Containerisution International (December IYYI). p. 67.

were combined.] d
Rotterdam, the main container pivot port in ports in the world are Pacific Rim ports. Taiwan had
Europe since the beginning of the containerization two ports in the top 10, and the Port of Kaohsiung
era, has dropped to third place behind the two had a volume of containers equal to that of the Port
leading container ports, Singapore and Hong Kong of Hamburg and the Port of Antwerp combined.
(see Table 4 and Figure 5). The magnitude of the A recent United Nations (1990) study made the
shift of trade to the Pacific Rim is further illustrated distinction between ‘dedicated hub ports’ and ‘load
by the fact that 10 out of the largest 13 container centre ports’. Dedicated hub ports, which we prefer
” This is a data problem similar to the one mentioned in to call relay ports, are situated either at the inter-
footnote 11. section of main sea routes or at one end of such

14
 Spatial characteristics of transportation hubs: D. K. Fleming and Y. Hayuth

routes at a place where the main flow of container

traffic splits into ‘feeder’ flows to and from ports of Table 5 Container traffic in European ports (‘X of Europe
container traffic)
the neighbouring areas. These ports are veritable
nodal points where container flows converge. They Port 1970 1975 1980 1985 1988
are major trans-shipment locations where locally
generated traffic represents a relatively small Hamburg 2.0 6.7 7.7 8.1 0.8
proportion (eg less than half) of the total. lnter- Bremen 9.3 8.3 6.9 6.8 6.8
Rotterdam 10.8 21.7 18.6 18.6 IO.‘)
mediacy plays a major part in establishing the traffic Antwerp 9.0 6.0 7.1 x.7 8.‘)
volume at relay ports and, therefore, in defining how Felixstowe 6.7 4.6 3.Y 5.1 7.7
strategic commercially their locations may be at the Lc Havre 4. I 4.8 5.0 4.0 4.x
time. The load centre ports (as defined by the UN Leghorn 1.0 I.3 3.0 3.3 2.Y
Algeciras 0.5 I .o 2.4 2.5 2.5
study) differ from the relay ports in that they also
Barcelona 0.5 I.6 1.8 2.5 2.5
carry a substantial traffic generated by their own Marseilles-Fos 0.4 1.9 2.Y 3.4 2.4
‘centrality’ vis-&vis their hinterlands. Examples of Others 54.8 42.1 40.7 37.0 31.8
relay ports can be found at various scales in various
Total 100.0 lOO.tl 100.0 100.0 100.0
parts of the world.
The Port of Singapore, with 5.2 million TEUs in Solcrcr: Containeriscrtion Inrernational Yearbook (rcspectivc
1990, has become the largest container port in the years).
world.” The Port of Singapore is clearly a relay
centre. Centrally situated to serve as a trans-
shipment point for South Asian, Southeast Asian the competition with the large Northwest European
and Australasian service, the Port of Singapore has seaports (see Table 5). One of the major obstacles of
greatly benefited from the rapid increase in intra- the Southern European ports in the competition for
Asian trade and the economic growth in Southeast the major interior markets in Europe was not SO much
Asia. It also serves as an intermediate point for ‘obstructive’ physical geography (the Alps, for
round-the-world services. About 60% of its current example), but the highly regulated inland transporta-
total throughput comes from relay traffic but the tion system in Europe. However, as the Single
other 40% is obviously important to the carriers too. European Market advances, there are hopes that the
The Port of Singapore has been classified in the barriers to free, smooth, fast and rationalized inland
industry as one of the two ‘megahubs’, which handle transportation movements will fade away. That
more than 4.0 million TEUs a year. In 1991 the brightens prospects for ports such as Marseilles-Fos,
estimated traffic of the Port of Singapore was 6.2 Leghorn and Genoa which have launched marketing
million TEUs. (One must take into account that campaigns to promote their roles as the ‘natural
trans-shipped containers are double counted - once gateways’ and relay locations for the fast-growing
for the unloading and once for loading of the same traffic betwf:en the Far East and Europe (Hayuth,
container.) Containerization and the efficiency of 1991, pp. 297-311). The Southern European ports
trans-shipment have allowed a port with a local are trying to convince the large carriers, particularly
territorial hinterland of very small areal size to those operating round-the-world service, to choose
become the largest container port in the world. The Mediterranean waystops, thus saving transport time
conventional liner system never cast Singapore in by comparison with the traditional Northwest
such a light. Who would have thought just two European load centres (see Figure 6).
decades ago that two trans-shipment ports such as In another part of the world the ports of Southern
Singapore and Hong Kong would lead the world California are competing with the Pacific Northwest
container league, rather than the great gateways and on long-distance overland ‘discretionary’ container
‘central places’of European and American commerce traffic. The main competitive advantage of the ports
like Rotterdam and New York? of Los Angeles and Long Beach (2.1 million TEUs
In Malta, the Port of Valletta has recently and 1.6 million TEUs in 1990 respectively) is the
purchased modern post-Panamax gantry cranes in its large local market, good rail connections to the
aspiration to become a regional trans-shipment point Midwest and to Southern USA and lately to the
on the fast-growing trade route between Europe and growing Mexican market. The ports of Seattle and
the Far East. The Port of Valletta is competing as a Tacoma, on the other hand, manage to handle a
regional relay centre with ports in Cyprus, Egypt substantial volume of containers (about 1.2 million
and Greece. TEUs and about 0.94 million TEUs respectively in
On a continental scale. the Mediterranean ports 1990), despite their relatively small local market
of Southern Europe have been trailing for years in (albeit supplemented in the past by a small but
significant participation in the nearby Vancouver BC
market). The main competitive advantages of the
” The TEU is a world-wide standard of container enumera-
tion. It Stands for ‘twenty-foot equivalent unit’. A twenty-foot
Puget Sound ports are their intermediacy with
long container is one TEU. A forty-foot container counts as two respect to the shortest distance track from the Far
TEUS. East to the US Midwest (roughly 30 sea-rail hours

Journal of Transport Geography 1994 Volume 2 Number I 15

Spatial characteristics of transportation hubs: D. K. Fleming and Y. Hayuth

II TEU

Gterdam
twerp

Figure 6 Europe’s top container ports

shorter than via Southern California) and their strategic alliances between container lines may
particularly efficient rail connections to Chicago. change that.
Indeed, about 70% of the foreign imports of the The case of the Puget Sound ports exemplifies
ports of Seattle and Tacoma are in transit to the competition at a local or intraregional scale. Once
Midwest and the East Coast. the carrier has decided on an intermodal route
In both the European and the US West Coast through the Pacific Northwest, the selection of the
examples cited, the carrier’s primary choice is the specific port of call among Seattle, Tacoma, Portland
general route or itinerary and then comes the choice or Vancouver BC is more a question of site than of
of specific port. In other words, the total intermodal situation. The expansion of the Port of Oakland and
route considerations more than the specific quali- the decline of the Port of San Francisco in the late
fications of the individual ports are the main 1960s and the 1970s also involved site considera-
determinants of port selection. The ports are not tions. The availability of terminal space, on-dock
exactly helpless but they are not the essential facilities, ease and speed of intermodal exchange
decision-makers either. Often the individual ports - and the pricing of port facilities are among the
eg Seattle or Tacoma; Marseilles-Fos or Genoa - critical site factors. Shipping lines are attempting
cannot generate enough traffic from their local more and more to control their costs throughout the
markets to ensure their current or future status as entire transport chain. They find it increasingly
large container ports. They depend more on their difficult to control their operations and costs at
relay function and on intermediacy than on their common-user terminals. Larger carriers currently
centrality. Again, the decision on selection of a port prefer to operate their own terminals, even if that
of call is made by the carrier not by the port. The means that they have to invest their own monies in
fact that not all the carriers select the same ports as the terminals. They are gaining important control
their major focus has so far prevented a greater over entire itineraries.
concentration of traffic in fewer ports. However, the We have emphasized economic and operational
recent rationalization in liner shipping and the explanations of container port rankings. There can
 Spatial characteristics of transportation hubs: D. K. Neming and Y. Huyuth

be political considerations too. In the Persian Gulf Conclusion

region, the long war between Iran and Iraq increased
the risks of maintaining schedules inside the Gulf We have identified centrality and intermediacy as
itself. This situation accelerated the development of spatial characteristics or qualities that enhance the
container terminals close to the Gulf’s mouth to traffic levels of transportation hubs. Strategic com-
serve as relay hubs. Shipping lines chose to drop off mercial location can be defined in terms of these two
containers at United Arab Emirates (UAE) ports characteristics. In our analysis of passenger move-
and feed them into smaller, more favourably flagged ments at US airports and container movements at
seaports, we have differentiated when possible
vessels (O’Mahony, 1989, pp. 51-59). Six container
ports were developed and four of them have shown a between true origin-destination traffic from and
remarkable growth in the last several years, particu- to a nearby hinterland, and connecting or mid-
journey traffic. We use the former as a rough
larly Port Rashid (see Table 6 and Figure 7). In
contrast, the inner Gulf ports in Kuwait lost traffic surrogate measure of the impact of centrality; the
between 1982 and 1987 and the traffic at the Saudi latter, as a measure of intermediacy. Traffic data
Port of Damman remained at a relatively low level. reveal that great air hubs such as Chicago and great
container ports such as Los Angeles are heavily
Port Rashid (serving Dubai, UAE) has become the
endowed with both centrality and intermediacy.
largest container port in the Gulf and the entire
Centrality and intermediacy are overlapping con-
Middle East with 613 000 TEUs in 1990. It is clearly
cepts, which makes statistical precision unlikely. A
a relay hub for the extended market of the Gulf
region, East Africa, India and Pakistan. The trans- central place, in the context of the region to which it
is central, is also an intermediate place among points
shipment share of the port’s traffic is over 50%.
After the war between Iran and Iraq (and before
the more recent Gulf crisis), shipping lines were Table 6 Container throughput at the Persian Gulf Ports (000
reluctant to return to direct calls at individual ports TEU)
in the Gulf itself. For the long-haul carrier, UAE Port 1985 1987
1986 1988 1990
ports are preferred relay points. The political condi-
tions that enhance the development of the container Port Rashid (USA) 372 3x3 523 557 613
ports at the Gulf’s mouth have changed but it is Fujairah (UAE) 83 139 188 203 414
Khor Fakkan (UAE) NA 18.7 70 124 162
too early for shipping lines to resume long-term
Jcbel Ali (UAE) 145 146 72 70 303
commitments in the Gulf itself. Moreover, the Port Zayed (UAE) 26 21 30 43 46
voyage-shortening operational considerations Port Khalid (UAE) 35 54 70 45 23
favour the continued development of the UAE Damman (S. Arabia) 253 223 208 208 232
Al-Kuwait (Kuwait) 236 191 200 220 104”
ports. Thus, a combination of political, economic
and general situational factors are behind the success “lY89.
of Port Rashid as the largest relay port in the Note: TEU = twenty-foot equivalent unit.
region. Source: C‘ontninerisation In~ernakmal Yearbooks.

PERSIAN GULF

Figure 7 Persian Gulf container ports

17
Spatial charnctrristics of transportation hubs: D. K. Fleming und Y. Hapth

in the region. Centrality needs to be redefined with Publications of the American Economic Association, Voi. Y
changes in scale. Atlanta’s centrality, for instance, is Davies, R.E.G. (1988) Airlines of United States since 14114.
Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press
much more regional than national or global. Inter- Dickinson, R.E. (1961) The west European city, London:
mediacy needs even more frequent redefinition with Routledgc and Kegan Paul
changes in scale, changes in transport technology. Fleming, D.K. (1076) An identification and interprrtution of US
changes in government policy and, especially, air travel puttern.s. Monograph, Dcpartmcnt of Geography,
University of Washington
changes in the transportation carriers’ individual
Fleming, D.K. (1989) ‘On the beaten track: a view of US Wcst-
corporate choices. Intermediacy can, therefore, be Coast container port competition’. Mrrritime Policy and
quite a transitory and artificial characteristic, none Management. 16, pp. 93-107
the less one that generates activity of great opera- Freight Transport Association (19Yl) EC‘ - ~owtirds the single
tional significance to airports and seaports. Under- market - 1992. Kent: Hermes House
Giddcns. A. (lY87) Social theory und modern sociology. Stanford.
standably, Anchorage will advertise and try to
CA: Stanford University Press
promote its airport’s intermediacy. Seattle will do Harris. C.D. and Ullman, E.L. (1945) ‘The nature of citica’,
the same thing for its seaport. These intermediacy reprinted in Mayer, H.M. and Kohn. C.F. (eds) (IYSY)
claims are not without geographical logic, as maps Reudingy in urban geogruph!, Chicago: University of Chicago
have shown. We have found (in Table 2 and Figure Press
Hayuth. Y. (1981) ‘Containerization and the load center concept’.
3) that the majority of the main airline connecting Economic Geography, 57, pp. lhO-176
hubs for domestic service in the USA fall in a ‘geo- Hayuth. Y. (lYX7) Intermodulityc concept und practice. London:
graphically logical’ circle in east central USA-logical Lloyds of London Press
in the light of what we know about the distribution of Hayuth. Y. (1991) ‘Load ccntcring competition and modal
population, cities and industries in the USA. integration’, CoustulMunu,gement, 19, pp. 297-31 I
Isard, W. (19%) l~ocutionand ,spuce economy. Cnmbridgc. MA:
Air and ocean transport networks are innately MIT Press
flexible, since there are no fixed tracks. This L&h, A. (1967) The economics of Locution. trans.
‘natural’ flexibility, reinforced in the USA by recent Woglom, W.H. and Stolpcr. W.F.. New York: Scicncc
deregulatory legislation, enables carriers to adjust Editions, John Wiley
Mayer, H.M. (1057) The port of Chicugo und the St Luwrmw
itineraries rapidly and to choose or to change relay
seuwuy. Research Paper No. 49, Chicago: University of
points where connections and trans-shipments are Chicago, Department of Geography
made. Tn this era of integrated global transportation McJunkin. H.J. (lYY0) A global transport system cfficicncy.
systems and total logistics, the factor of intermediacy Rotterdum, Pucem In Murihus XVIII Conferewe Proceedings
Minshull, G.N. (IYYO) The new Europe, Iondon: Hoddcr and
is increasingly important. However, from the market-
Stoughton
ing perspective, centrality is the more enduring O‘Mahony. H. (198’)) ‘UAE ports scoop the pool - Emirates
quality of major transportation hubs. The centrality become regional load ccntcr’. Contuinrri.sution Internutionul.
of the hub finds expression not only in the traffic July lY89, pp. Sl-SO
levels of the airport or seaport but. more funda- Parker. W.H. (1982) MucKinder, grogruphy rrs un uid to
stutecrufi. Oxford: Clnrcndon Press
mentally, in the size and function and growth Pcnck. A. (1899) ‘Die pole der landobcrtlachc’, C;cwgruphi.whc
potential of the hub city itself. Zeitschrift. 5. pp. 121-126
The two locational attributes, centrality and inter- Reed. A. (IYOI) ‘The unlocking of Hcnthrow’. A/r Trunsport
mediacy, combine at various geographical scales to World. 2X(Y). pp. 2X-2’)
Sampson. A. (lY84) Em[>irr.s of the sky. New York: Random
define particularly strategic locations within trans-
House
portation systems. Both attributes reflect situational Sargent, A.J. (1930) Seuwuys of the empire, London: A&C‘ Black
factors. Situations change! Sargent, A.J. (lY39) Seaports and hintcrlund.s, Glasgow: A&C‘
Black
References Scaly, K.R. (1957) The geogruphy
Hutchinson University Library
of uir trunsport. Iondon:

Alhion, R.G. (1939) The rise of New York porf, New York: Tanffc, E.J. (1956) ‘Air transportation and United States urban
Charles Scribner’s Sons distribution’, Geogruphicui keviw. 36. pp. 219-238
Bird. J. (1971) Seuporfs anal seuport terminals. London: Taaffc, E.J. and Gauthicr. H.L. (1973) Geowuahv oftrunsnortu-
Hutchinson University Library Con, Foundations of Economic G&graph‘; So&: Englcwood
Bird. J. (lY73) ‘Ofccntral places, cities and seaports’. Geogruphy. Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall
xi. pp. 105-l IX Ullman, E.L. (lY41) ‘A theory of location for cities’, rcprintcd in
Boyce, R.R. (cd.) (1980) Geogruphy as sputiul inrerucrion. Mayer. H.M. and Kohn. C.F. (eds) (IYSY) Rcuding in urhurr
Seattle: University of Washington Press geography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Braudcl, F. (IYYO) The identity of France. Vol. I (Perennial Ullman. E.L. (1954) ‘Geography as spatial interaction’. draft
Library Edition) New York: Harper and Row version in Boyce. R.R. (cd.) (lY80) Geography NS .sputirr/

Brinton. C. (1968) The Americun.s and the French, Cambridge, interaction. Seattle: University of Washington Press
MA: Harvard University Press United Nations (IYYO) L&velopment und improvrmant of ports.
Bunge. W. (1966) Theoretical geography, Lund: Lund Studies Geneva: United Nations Confcrcncc on Trndc and Devclop-
Chisholm, M. (1962) Rurul settlement and land use. London: ment
Hutchinson University Library Van Zandt, J.P. (1944) The geogruphy of world uir trunsport.
Christaller. W. (1066) Cerrtra/ p1ucr.s in southern Germany, trans. Washington: Brookings Institution
Baskin, C.W.. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall Weigend. G.G. (lYS8) ‘Some clcmcnts in the study ot port
Cronon, W. (1991) Nature’s metropolis. Chicago und the Greut geography’, Geographical Review, 4X. pp. 1X5-200
West. New York: W.W. Norton Woytinsky, W.S. and Woytinsky, E.S. (1955) World commerce
Coolcy, C.H. (18YJ) The theory of trunsportution. Baltimore: trr~d gowrnment. New York: The Twentieth Century Fund

1X