Transport vs Transportation
We all know the words transport and transportation, and are also aware of the contexts in which these related words are used. However, there are some who think that these are synonyms and use them interchangeably, which is a wrong practice. Let us take a closer look.
We have a transport ministry, not transportation ministry.
Have you made arrangements for transportation of goods from the factory to the market?
Transportation cost in the city is too high for comfort
Metro rail is ideal for fast and efficient transportation of people in the city.
From the above examples, it becomes clear that both transport and transportation convey roughly the same meaning, though there are subtle differences. Even in Wikipedia transport and transportation are defined as movement of people, good, or cattle from one place to another. While transportation is the word used as a noun as well as verb in US, British prefer transport to transportation. It is a matter of preference though it would be correct to use transport if you use spelling like colour and canceled, while transportation looks natural if you are from US and use spellings like color and cancelled.
Transportation is a word that came into existence when criminals and cattle were used to be carried from one place to another and to differentiate this process from the regular process of transport of people on their vehicles, the word transportation was used. With passage of time though, both words came to be used for all kinds of transport and there is no hard and fast rule to differentiate between them.