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There are occasional instances of commercial and civilian transports in the Star Trek universe. It's rather hard to imagine, given how pervasive air transport is to us, that some kind of analogous space transport service doesn't exist. I don't know, though, that this subject has ever been fleshed out.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? I'd like to get to Risa before the Borg mess it up!

Most likely. Doubt Starfleet doubles as a civilian transport service.

I'm not sure I understand. You say that there are examples of civvie transports, then say it would be odd if there weren't such examples.

There are lots of examples of civvie transport, both private individuals with shuttlecraft type vessels and larger commercial transports. They just didn't tend to get much emphasis in the series. Though they feature frequently in DS9, at least to the extent that people are arriving by them, even if we often don't see the ships.

sunnyside wrote:There are lots of examples of civvie transport, both private individuals with shuttlecraft type vessels and larger commercial transports. They just didn't tend to get much emphasis in the series. Though they feature frequently in DS9, at least to the extent that people are arriving by them, even if we often don't see the ships.

Thanks, that's been my impression, too.

Do you know of any scenes where the larger transports, rather than smaller shuttle-craft, are depicted?

I don't recall ever seeing a "spaceliner" comparable to a real-world airliner. The closest thing I've seen is the Tarellian "cruise liner" of TNG "Haven." Nor have I heard of a "spaceline" analogous to our airlines or passenger lines. (I suppose the Tarellians had a "cruise line" of sorts, as they had "cruise liners.")

Perhaps the lack of "spacelines" per se may reflect the difference in the nature of Trek society from ours -- or a lack of interest on the part of the writers to give much attention to this subject, as you suggest.

Platonian wrote: Do you know of any scenes where the larger transports, rather than smaller shuttle-craft, are depicted?

This isn't canon, but that's what I always assumed the 'Bajoran Star Destroyers' were.

Thanks, Griffin!

This is primarily a freighter, right? I suspect it could be used for passenger transport, too, as are some real-world freighters. Do your sources indicate that these vessels carried passengers?