Contenu du sommaire

On April 20th, 1975 the brand new airport of Satolas was opened to traffic. Located 25 kilometres eastwards of Lyon, it was due to replace the former Bron airport, which was unable to cope with the traffic forecasts. The booming development that occured since is reviewed but some shadows are observed now ; the cancellation of the main air freght traffic to Kano, as well as the opening of the new high speed railway line linking Paris and Lyon are the main present concerns. The paper also brings a methodological contribution to the geography of air transport since the concept of « airport's tryptic » is defined, wherein the airport plays as a place of interchange between its hinterland and foreland ; because appropriate statistical data are lacking, foreland and hinterland connections of Satolas are reviewed successively, instead of simultaneously, as it would be desirable ; the author feels that further case studies are needed to test the concept of a hinterland-foreland continuum.

Container traffic and harbour competition in the Rhone-Alpes area. At a time when the rapidity of the raw material, semi-finished and manufactured products carriage, seems to be essential to the keeping up of a economy, it is interesting to study the influence of new sea transport technics, the container in a continental and industrial area as developed as Rhone-Alpes. The paper aims more precisely to situate efficently the Rhone-Alpes area within the european sea ports hinterland. A strong competition opposes the occidental Mediterranean sea ports to the Northern Range ones, in general ; Marseilles-Fos in particular. This fight for harbour influence is studied through the external trade system of Rhone-Alpes, and the evolution of sea haulage with rail transport and road haulage container, coming from Rhone-Alpes, and bound for exportation from big european sea ports.

Transport by containers has been introduced in Lyons area since 1965 and its very inequal benefit depends on the volume and the nature of their exportations, container transport being more suitable for standardized parcels by divisible lots of goods easy to be preserved. The analysis of the France-Lait case shows that containerisation implies an effort of adaptation, can appreciably reduce store keeping and dispatching costs, but leads to modify the commercial space of the firm.

Accounting to its length, the Dijon-Lyon-Paris railway line constitutes the most active line in France for men and goods as well. This intensity goes with the striking out of Lyons crossroads, the weakness of the connections towards the Alps and especially the Massif Central, and the scarceness of international connections not ordered from Paris. These features explain the persistent effect parisian centralization soon strengthened by T.G.V.