Is “transportation means” correct? Why/why not?

Question

I wrote a report about my city for an English class, and used the words "transportation means" to describe the objects one can use to go from one place to another. In fact, I got confused whether to use it or the other "means of transportation".

Here is an excerpt of the only sentence with this situation from my report:

There are so many transportation means which can be used to reach those well-known places.

As it seems, "means of transportation" is correct (I've read this before asking), so I have to ask: is "transportation means" also correct? Why or why not?

Answer 1

While I don't believe it's grammatically incorrect, and it does convey essentially the same meaning (at least to me), I would wager it's a very uncommon usage. I've personally never seen that used instead of 'means of transportation'.

I'd write it off as one of those phrase mutations you run into occasionally. Nothing really wrong with it, per se, but it's not what you would usually say.