New underground bus and coach terminal and metro station are located underneath the Kamppi Center in Helsinki, Finland

A transport hub (also transport interchange) is a place where passengers and cargo are exchanged between vehicles or between transport modes. Public transport hubs include train stations, rapid transit stations, bus stops, tram stop, airports and ferry slips. Freight hubs include classification yards, seaports and truck terminals, or combinations of these. For private transport the parking lot functions as a hub.

Delta Air Lines pioneered the hub and spoke system for aviation in 1955 from its hub in Atlanta, Georgia,^[1] in an effort to compete with Eastern Air Lines. FedEx adopted the hub and spoke model for overnight package delivery during the 1970s. When the airline industry was deregulated in 1978, Delta's hub and spoke paradigm was annexed by several airlines. Hubs make out the center of spoke-hub distribution paradigms, allowing passengers and cargo to be transported from one place to another without a direct service.

Public transport[link]

Interior of South Station, a major MBTA, Amtrak and Greyhound transportation hub in Boston, Massachusetts, United States

The nature of public transport makes it necessary for people to change transport modes throughout the journey. The first hub a passenger often will come across is a bus stop where one changes from pedestrian to bus. But often public transport is built around a network of different transportation methods, each serving different functions with varying frequencies, distances, speeds and stopping patterns, so-called intermodal passenger transport. Typical transport hubs in public transport include bus stations, railway stations and metro stations, while a major transport hub, often multimodal (bus and rail), may be referred to in American English as a transport center or transit center.^[2] Sections of city streets that are devoted to functioning as transit hubs are referred to as transit malls.

Modern electronic Passenger information systems and journey planners require a detailed digital representation of the stops and Transportation hubs including their Topology. Public transport data information standards such as Transmodel and IFOPT have been developed to provide a common terminology, conceptual models and data exchange formats to allow the economic, large scale collection and distribution of stop and interchange data.

Airports[link]

Airports have a twofold hub function. First of all they make it possible to concentrate a lot of passenger traffic from large areas into one place so the airlines have a good market. This makes it important for airports to be connected to the surrounding transport infrastructure, including roads, bus services and some places also railway and rapid transit systems.

Secondly some airports also function as intra-modular hubs for the airlines, or airline hubs. This is a common strategy among network airlines who fly only from limited number of airports and usually will make their customers change planes at one of their hubs if they want to get between two cities the airline doesn't fly directly between. Airlines have extended the hub-and-spoke model in various ways. One method is to create additional hubs on a regional basis, and to create major routes between the hubs. This reduces the need to travel long distances between nodes that are close together. Another method is to use focus cities to implement point-to-point service for high traffic routes, bypassing the hub entirely.

Freight[link]

DHL Hub Leipzig

Some of the most important transportation hubs are freight hubs. There are usually three kinds: sea-road, sea-rail and road-rail, though they can also be sea-road-rail. This is because the three main freight transport modes each have their own separate advantages concerning price, barriers and distribution. With the growth of containerization, intermodal freight transport has become more efficient, often making multiple lags cheaper than through services—increasing the use of hubs.

See also[link]

• Central station
• Junction (traffic)
• Intermodal Journey Planner
• Layover
• Infrastructure security

References[link]

The Honourable Brad Wall MLA
Wall at the Leader's Debate, October 25, 2011
14th Premier of Saskatchewan
Incumbent
Assumed office November 21, 2007
Lieutenant Governor	Gordon Barnhart
Preceded by	Lorne Calvert
MLA for Swift Current
Incumbent
Assumed office 1999–present
Preceded by	John Wall
Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan
In office 2004 – November 20, 2007
Preceded by	Elwin Hermanson
Personal details
Born	(1965-11-24) November 24, 1965 (age 46) Swift Current, Saskatchewan
Political party	Saskatchewan Party
Spouse(s)	Tami Kildaw
Children	One son, two daughters
Religion	Christian - Mennonite Brethren[1]
Signature

Bradley John "Brad" Wall, MLA (born November 24, 1965) is a Canadian politician who has been the 14th Premier of Saskatchewan since November 21, 2007.

Wall was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan as the Member of the Legislative Assembly for Swift Current in 1999, and re-elected in 2003. He became leader of the Official Opposition Saskatchewan Party on March 15, 2004. He replaced Elwin Hermanson, who resigned after leading the party to defeat in the 2003 provincial election.

In the 2011 election, Wall led the Saskatchewan Party to a majority government in Saskatchewan with more than 64% of the popular vote and 49 of the 58 seats in the legislature.

Life and political career[link]

Wall is a lifelong resident of Swift Current, Saskatchewan and he completed his post-secondary education with a degree in public administration from the University of Saskatchewan.

His political roots are in the Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan, working as a ministerial assistant to Graham Taylor, Minister of Public Participation, Tourism, Small Business, Co-operatives and Health, and John Gerich, Associate Minister of Economic Development. Wall ran unsuccessfully for the Progressive Conservative nomination for Swift Current in April 1991.

Prior to his election, Wall was the director of business development for the City of Swift Current. In 1999, the Saskatchewan Economic Developers Association (SEDA) had presented him with the 1998 Economic Developer of the Year Award. In the early 1990s, Wall also managed a country music museum that was relocated to Swift Current from Kitchener, ON, following a significant grant from the Grant Devine government.^[2] The facility went bankrupt in 1995.^[3] Wall has also sat on a number of boards including being a founding member of the Southwest Centre for Entrepreneurial Development. Wall also started his own business, The Last Stand Adventure Company.

Wall won the Saskatchewan Party nomination for Swift Current in the 1999 election and won handily, defeating NDP incumbent John Wall (no relation) by 24 points as part of a wave of rural victories that saw the NDP cut down to a minority government. He was immediately appointed to the Saskatchewan Party's front bench as Justice Critic, and later became critic for the Crown Investments Corporation as well.

When original leader Elwin Hermanson resigned after narrowly losing the 2003 provincial election, Wall announced his candidacy for the leadership. No other candidates stepped forward, and Wall was acclaimed the party's new leader on March 15, 2004.

After becoming leader of the Saskatchewan Party, Wall committed to a review of Saskatchewan Party policies. This policy review process reached its culmination at the Saskatchewan Party's annual convention in February 2005 and resulted in a considerably more moderate policy platform. Among the old resolutions that were replaced was one that called for "boot camps" for young offenders. New policy resolutions included calling for treatment for crystal methamphetamine addicts, a patient-first review of the health care system, the development of a comprehensive plan to recruit and retain health care professionals, the development an integrated addictions strategy for young offenders who are incarcerated, a comprehensive review of the justice system to restore trust and confidence in the system, the establishment of a provincial youth justice board to address youth crime, rehabilitation and restitution measures, support for victims of crime, the establishment of a university research chair in occupational health and safety, and a review of the Workers' Compensation Board.

In September 2004, Brad Wall released The Promise of Saskatchewan: A New Vision for Saskatchewan's Economy,^[4] a plan to grow the province's economy. In the fall of 2006, Wall released a policy paper on behalf of the Saskatchewan Party caucus, "Getting Saskatchewan Back on Track: Addressing Saskatchewan's Labour Shortage."^[5]

On November 7, 2011 Premier Brad Wall led the Saskatchewan Party to a historic landslide victory in the provincial election. The Saskatchewan Party garnered 49 of 58 seats in the Saskatchewan Legislature, gaining 9 seats over what they held previous to the election and leaving the NDP with a mere 9 seats, the smallest number of seats held by them since 1982.

Controversies[link]

Wall's leadership style has generally been received as popular throughout Saskatchewan and within the Saskatchewan Party caucus. However, his leadership was called into question at the end of January 2006 when MLA Brenda Bakken-Lackey resigned from the party. Bakken-Lackey cited unspecified frustrations within the Saskatchewan Party caucus as being among her reasons for resigning.^[6] This led to a by-election in Weyburn-Big Muddy, which was won by the Saskatchewan Party's former caucus researcher, Dustin Duncan. At the party's 2007 annual convention, Wall received the support of 98 per cent of convention delegates for his leadership.^[5]

In recent times, he has been more willing to discuss his employment under the Grant Devine government. In the Saskatchewan Legislature's spring 2006 session, NDP MLAs revealed that Wall had worked in Gerich's office at the time when $15,000 worth of alcohol^[7] was allocated to the Minister's office. Wall admitted to the media of his partaking in the alcohol and knowing it was "wrong"^[8] and stated he considered it "an asset" to have learned from the government's activities.

On April 3, 2008, the provincial NDP released a video tape filmed during the 1991 Saskatchewan general election on the day of the leaders debate.^[9] The video showed Conservative MP and former Saskatchewan Party staffer Tom Lukiwski making homophobic remarks.^[10] Wall was also on the video using an exaggerated Ukrainian accent, making derogatory statements about former NDP Premier Roy Romanow.^[10][11][12] There were also comments made about then Liberal Party leader and future Lieutenant Governor Lynda Haverstock, which centred on her gender.^[10] Wall apologized later that day for his comments.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikinews has related news: Canada pursues new nuclear research reactor to produce medical isotopes

• Official website
• Brad Wall - Saskatchewan Party biography

v t e Premiers of Saskatchewan Scott · Martin · Dunning · Gardiner · Anderson · Gardiner · Patterson · Douglas · Lloyd · Thatcher · Blakeney · Devine · Romanow · Calvert · Wall

v t e   First Ministers of Canada Federal Prime Minister: Stephen Harper Provincial AB: Alison Redford • BC: Christy Clark • MB: Greg Selinger • NB: David Alward • NL: Kathy Dunderdale • NS: Darrell Dexter • ON: Dalton McGuinty • PE: Robert Ghiz • QC: Jean Charest • SK: Brad Wall Territorial NT: Bob McLeod • NU: Eva Aariak • YT: Darrell Pasloski