The graph below shows the quantities of goods transported in the UK between 1974 and 2002 by four different modes of transport

The graph illustrates the number of commodities transported by four different types of transport in the UK between 1974 and 2002.
The initial impression is that, transported goods by road, water and pipeline experienced a marginal growth. However it fluctuated moderately by rail mode throughout the period.
As can be seen, the number of goods transported by water mode was almost exactly the same as rail mode at roughly 40 million tonnes by 1978. After that water transportation witnessed a sluggish increase of nearly 60 million tones of goods followed by a constant remain for 12 consecutive years.From 1994, after a slow decrease, it rose gradually by around 67 million tones to the end of the period.
From 1978 to 2002, there was a fluctuation for rail mode at nearly 37 million tonnes transported goods.
Generally, goods transported by pipeline rose slowly from approximately 5 to nearly 22 million tones for first 22 years and reached a plateau at about 22 million tones goods in the last 16 years.
In the beginning, with road modes, goods transportation was roughly 70 million tonnes followed by an upward trend of nearly 100 million tones in the whole period.
In conclusion, it is obvious that transportation with roads was the most popular way, while pipeline transportation methods was the least preffered one in that period.