Влияние геополитического фактора на формирование и развитие транспортной системы Великобритании

own special features of the transport system, which have developed under the influence of a geopolitical factor, and ignorance of them can turn into serious problems when traveling to this country.
Research aims: to find out what are the features of the UK transport system, how the geopolitical factor influenced its formation and development, and also to reveal how well the citizens of Russia are aware of this issue.
Research objectives:
1) to study the theoretical part and understand how the geopolitical factor affected the transport system of Great Britain;
2) using the method of computer questionnaire, to perform my own research on the awareness of our citizens about the special features of transport in this country;
3) to draw conclusions about how different the UK transport system is from the one we are used to, and what difficulties Russians may face in this regard.

Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the UK) occupies most of the territory of the British Isles.
It has an area of some 244,100 square kilometres. The population of the country is nearly 59 million people.
The United Kingdom has a very developed and diverse transportation network, which connects different regions.

a long transportation history,
starting with the first sea voyage to the British Isles before our era,
roads built by the Romans,
the largest registered merchant fleet in the world and a powerful navy during the Empire era,
the first railways and underground,
great achievements in aviation;
and ending with a modern well-developed transport system with all new technologies, high speeds and huge passenger traffic.

island location, before the Channel Tunnel the only way to enter or leave the country (apart from air travel) was on water.
There are many ports and harbours in the country, navigable rivers and large canal network providing freight traffic.
As for passengers, nowadays this mode of transport is pretty slow and expensive. That’s why it is used mostly for leisure, apart from ferries.

local roads

However, due to the high population density and popularity of road transport, this network is sometimes confusing and overloaded.
And yet this type of transport remains very popular among locals and visitors of the country.
Why do the British keep left? There is a historical reason for this!
Most people are right-handed, so if a stranger passed by on the right of you, your right hand would be free to use your sword if required.

oldest such network in the world. The world's first passenger railway running on steam was the Stockton and Darlington Railway, opened on 27 September 1825.
The national rail is one of the most developed transportation networks in the UK, connecting different cities. The UK trains also keep left.
The rail system consists of five high-speed main lines (the West Coast, East Coast, Midland, Great Western and Great Eastern), augmented by regional rail lines and dense commuter networks within the major cities.
The high-speed rail in the UK is running at top speeds of 200 km/h, and there is one high-speed line reaching 300 km/h.

The first major airline was Imperial Airways, established in 1924, and serving destinations in the empire such as Cape Town and Calcutta as well as European routes.
Nowadays the UK has 471 airports and airfields. Each major city has its airport.
Heathrow International Airport near London is the busiest one in Europe in terms of passengers' traffic.

the Overground, Rail Services, taxis, Cycle Hire, river transport, etc.
The Underground, or 'The Tube’ of London is the oldest underground metro network in the world.
There are many lines connecting to each other, running parallel for several stations, circling and ending in forks. At the station you can find out that the trains from different lines arrive at the same platform,
There is one more caution about The Tube: “Mind the gap!”

Russian are ready to face the peculiarities of the UK transport system.
The study was conducted by anonymous computer questionnaire.
The questionnaire was posted on the basis of the Google Forms service and was offered to be filled out through the social networks VKontakte, Facebook and WhatsApp.
80 people took part in this survey.
The questionnaire consisted of 10 questions.
The results were presented as diagrams and attached to the study.

the following conclusions:
The UK transport system, due to the island location of the country, its extensive politics and economy, is well developed in all directions, including railways, highways, air and water transport.
However, it has many weak points, such as overloaded and expensive public transport, the lack of a unified general transport policy and a long-term strategy.

15

number of features the Russians are not very familiar with, such as:
left-hand traffic,
a very confusing network of metro lines,
high-speed trains running throughout the country and to the continent,
many international airports and seaports.
The main conclusion confirms our hypothesis: it is useful to know about the special features of the UK transport system before going there, because its structure, traditions and rules are very different from ours.
I think that it would be reasonable to give more information about the UK transport at school lessons, such as English and Geography.