Passengers terminal: elements and types.

In this first post about terminals for passengers we will talk about the basic elements of this terminal and the main important types of passengers terminals

Terminal elements

• Area of ​​operation. In the dock next to the ship, to serve passenger shipments, and vehicles where appropriate, in addition to the provisioning and provisioning the ship. In it are located, where appropriate, the boarding hall and distributor, as shown in the sketch; (including gateways) complex elements whose accident has required some normalization (BS, for example), and whose design influences noticeable in the esthetic values ​​of the terminal it is.
• Sea port. Building concentrating the passage for loading or unloading, and other related operations passage or these services.
• It is necessary to have an area to attend to passengers and passenger, or staff working at the maritime station.
• Area for ro. If we have a joint terminal. The organization of this is in accordance to what is said on the subject of «ro-ro terminals» with. Emphasize the desirability of separating the parking lot for cargo earlier this precise area.

Two major types of maritime station:

• Ferry Terminals

Aimed at:

 Passengers (possibly carrying his luggage, which does not generate attention)

 Vehicle passengers themselves,

 Ro merchandise.

• Terminals cruises, whose passengers often travel in much greater numbers, with lots of luggage, and require higher levels of quality of care in the previous case. Can be:

Basis port: which starts / ends the contracted journey, problematic through the baggage handling and          controls to be performed.

Port of call: intermediate crossing points with short durations of the scale, do not move with much less baggage and less control of people and goods.

Hinterland vs Foreland. Hub ports vs Gateway ports.

Hinterland

It is called hinterland to national or international region that is the origin of goods shipped in the port and destination of the goods landed in it. This is so the area of ​​influence of the port around it.

For example, the metropolitan area of ​​Barcelona and most part of Catalonia form the immediate hinterland of the port of Barcelona. Other geographic areas (Aragon, Madrid, Languedoc-Roussillon, …) are also part of this hinterland but in this case you enter in open competition with other ports (Valencia, Marseille, …). Economic power and consumption capacity of a port hinterland largely determine its ability to capture and traffic loads.

Foreland

Foreland is called a port to national or international region is the origin of goods unloaded at the port and destination of goods loaded in it. This is because the area of ​​influence of the port to which the load generated by its hinterland is directed or from which comes the goods to that hinterland. For example, the Far East, Maghreb, etc. part of the foreland of the port of Barcelona.

Hub port

Until a few decades ago it was made maritime traffic mainly from port to port: the goods were loaded at the port of origin and discharged directly into the port of destination without intermediate transshipment operations. However the search for higher levels of efficiency and growth in the size of ships has forced boost new types of operations.

Maritime hub or hub port is that port in which basically takes place the merger and distribution of cargo whose origin and destination is done outside the port hinterland. That is, it comes to ports where most of the operations performed correspond to transshipment of goods between ships, while local traffic in the port area of ​​influence is of little relevance to the former. Currently the major ocean container shipping lines use high-capacity vessels engaged a relatively small number of stops along their routes. The hub ports are strategically located along major shipping routes in performing these transfer operations.

Examples are the hub ports of Gioia Tauro (Italy), Dubai (Dubai) or Algeciras. They are located in strategic points of the route from the Far East to Northern Europe.

Gateway port

Are called gateway ports those that have large volumes of transfer but, unlike the hub ports, have a powerful economically hinterland and also generates large volumes of cargo. In general, these ports are located near industrial areas and consumption and have good road connections that allow them to act as centers of concentration and load distribution. Somehow, as the name suggests, the gateway ports are the main points of entry and exit of goods from a particular geographic region. Examples of these ports are Rotterdam (The Netherlands) or Hamburg (Germany).

Evolution of commercial (trading) ports

Ports are strategic nodes that facilitate the flow of goods in the international arena, as part of an extensive logistics network on which trade and information between points and / or distant geographical areas are established exchanges. In the port management strategic planning, marketing, logistics development and business management have made their own ways, following the same trend as other productive areas. Thus, the evolution of the ports has forced to change forms of port management, which has been divided into four levels (1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation).

The ports of 1st generation had the function of transporting goods land-sea and vice versa, through a local or regional (harborside which serves as a commercial route and distribution of goods) hinterland, unrelated to the socio-economic environment of the territory where they were located.

The 2nd generation beginning to be considered as a transport hub and center of industrial and commercial activity. They continue limited services to ships and goods, but in its vicinity processing industries are installed. These are called industrial ports.

The 3rd generation incorporate logistical functions related to the distribution of goods with treatment services using information and telecommunications systems and help to generate added value.

4th generation ports go a step further and are characterized by telematic networks (communication networks using new technologies) that connect different areas and allow port collaborate with other ports, in order to internationalize and diversify. These are called network ports. These ports are integrated into the supply chains of international transport services door to door with other logistics operators working in several ports geographically close.

Thus, a 4th generation port is a major logistics platform. It offers intermodal terminals or inland ports, connected to the seaport, and is located in a FMCG environment with free rail regularly and at competitive costs, allowing the transport of large volumes of goods to the distribution chain.

Additionally, the new network economy transforms the classical approaches of port logistics chains and gives them value. In this new context there have been significant changes in port operations, reducing time for loading and unloading and transport door to door. Here, the 4th generation ports are what are networked with other ports and characterized by:

• Develop strategies of internationalization and diversification of its activities that allow, for example , the transport of goods to any place on the planet .
• Provide an organization of logistics services that make them attractive and efficient facilities for the transportation of goods.
• Have EDI networks built between the port areas (EDI).
• Search port areas distributed abroad.
• Cooperate with other port communities.

Why is port planning so important?

In my first post I said that I am going to talk about port planning and ports in general. But first, we need to know why planning is so important in the development of a port.

Ports are main entrances to a country of two kinds of ware: goods and passengers. This is, we need ways to reach the port and ways to go from it to the city (or other settlements). But the two types of ware (passengers and goods) can not be located in the same place because they need different cares. Moreover, if we need them to be separated we will need different entries. Here is where port planning is so important, we need to organize the land in order to achieve a basic goal: to separate goods and passengers (and work with them efficiently) and to make them accesible from different directions.

The most part of ports and harbors are placed at a certain distance from cities, but in other cases the port is very close to the midtown (or downtown). There are 4 items that could affect the port’s planning:

• Accessibility: Main ports need to be accesible from different directions, e.g. Valencia’s Port (Spain) has accesses from the North, West and South sides and also has rail access.

Main entrances to Valencia Port. Source: valenciaport.com

• Urban permeability: Interaction with the city (e.g. restaurants, leisure activities)
• Permitted uses: commercial, fishing and marinas.
• Placeholders: for different uses and security issues.

I hope you find my posts interesting. Feel free to comment on everything you want, I will answer them with pleasure.

These are the topics that we will talk about in following posts:

• Post #3: Evolution of commercial (trading) ports
• Post #4: Hinterland and voreland
• Post #5: Passenger terminals
• Post #6: Ro-ro terminals (i)
• Post #7: Ro-ro terminals (ii)
• Post #8: Ro-ro terminals (iii)
• Post #9: Container terminals (i)
• Post #10: Container terminals (ii)
• Post #11: Container terminals (iii)
• Post #12: Dry-bulk terminals
• Post #13: Terminals for liquid bulk