Transport Infrastructure Investment Research Articles

The transport infraestructure contribution to the urban legacy of the Beijing Olympic Games

Abstract When a host city is chosen for the Olympic Games, its visibility on the international stage is increased and it becomes the focus for investments. Urban interventions that can accelerate the implementation of previously drawn up plans or redirect the urban planning process are performed. However, most discussions about the legacy of major sporting events take place without any empirical studies. This study seeks to analyze the planning proposals presented in Beijing, China, and the process by which they were physically implemented in the city. An indirect analysis methodology was carried out based on aerial images to establish a temporal comparison of the physical configurations in the vicinities of the urban railway structures. In this way, identify different dynamics in the four years after Beijing was chosen as the host city, in the year of the event and in the four years after it. It was possible to conclude that investment in transport infrastructure may have helped to consolidate the polycentric decentralization intended by the master plan for the city.

МОДЕЛИРОВАНИЕ ИЗМЕНЕНИЯ РЫНОЧНОЙ СТОИМОСТИ НЕДВИЖИМОСТИ ПРИ СТРОИТЕЛЬСТВЕ КРУПНОГО ДОРОЖНО-ТРАНСПОРТНОГО СООРУЖЕНИЯ

Transport infrastructure of the city affects the cadastral value of real estate. Transport accessibility of real estate affects the investment attractiveness of land. Transport accessibility increases the market value of the property. Modeling changes in the market value of real estate is an urgent task. Increasing the cadastral value of real estate and tax payments forms a model of investment in transport infrastructure. The article describes an example of modeling the increase in the price of land near the Central bridge of the city of Novosibirsk. The construction of the Central bridge is planned in 2019–2022. The new bridge increases the value of real estate. The cost of land increases by 50–100 %. The scheme of location of price zones is made. The increasing coefficients in the range from 1 to 2 are determined. Investors are given information about the increase in the value of land after the construction of the bridge. The payback period of construction projects is calculated.

Bright Investments: Measuring the Impact of Transport Infrastructure Using Luminosity Data in Haiti

This paper quantifies the impacts of transport infrastructure investments on economic activity in Haiti, using satellite night-light luminosity as a proxy measure. Our identification strategy exploits the differential timing of rehabilitation projects across various road segments of the primary road network. We combine multiple sources of non-traditional data and carefully address concerns related to unobserved heterogeneity. The results obtained across multiple specifications consistently indicate that receiving a road rehabilitation project leads to an increase in luminosity values of between 6% and 26% at the communal section level.Taking into account the national level elasticity between luminosity values and GDP, we approximate that these interventions translate into communal section-GDP increases of between 0.5% and 2.1%, for communal sections benefited by a transport infrastructure project. We observe temporal and spatial variation in results, and crucially that the larger impacts appear once projects are completed and are concentrated within 2 km buffers around the intervened roads. Neither the richest or the poorest communities reap the benefits from road improvements, with gains accruing to those in the middle of the ranking of communal sections, based on unsatisfied basic needs. Our findings provide novel evidence on the role of transport investments in promoting economic activity in developing countries.

Fields of hazards to rail freight shipment realization

There is a noticeable increase in rail freight shipment in recent years. European Union’s transport policy, infrastructure investments and opportunities given by the New Silk Road, point to new possibilities for development in this field of transport. Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 402/2013 of 30 April 2013 on the common method for risk evaluation and assessment and repealing Regulation (EC) No 352/2009 distinguishes six stages of proceeding in risk assessment process. Key one among them, regarding this article, is risk assessment and classification. For the cargo to safely reach recipients, conditions allowing for continuous flow of fright needs to be provided. While realizing railway fright shipment, undesirable events can occur, that disrupt the shipment process. This events can be identified on the railway tracks, in the shipment, transhipment and destination points, caused by human actions or atmospheric conditions.

THE IMPORTANCE OF TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENTS IN REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE NORTE REGION IN PORTUGAL AND THE MASOVIAN VOIVODSHIP IN POLAND

The aim of the paper was to compare the directions of investments in communication and transport infrastructure of the Norte Region in Portugal and the Masovian Voivodship in Poland. When analyzing the saturation of the infrastructure, particular attention has been paid to the investment aspect, since this factor has a major impact on the development of these regions. The conducted research has shown significant differences in the investment process itself. The Masovian Voivodship strongly diversifies the transport infrastructure investments on various modes of transport. In turn, in the Norte region one can observe a strong transport orientation geared towards an extensive network of expressways and a large access to local airports. The location of transport investments so understood in particular modes of transport is related to the different conditions of location of both regions.

European Union regional policy and development in Spain: capital widening and productivity stagnation over 1989–2010

ABSTRACT Total factor productivity (TFP) in Spain over the period 1989–2010 has followed a decreasing trend. This paper explores to what degree the transport infrastructure investments financed with European Union Structural Funds (ERDF) and Cohesion Funds (CF) including the compulsory national cofunding (EUINFP) prevented TFP over this period from falling further. It estimates an augmented Mankiw–Romer–Weil model for the 17 Spanish regions over the period 1989–2010 and finds positive marginal contributions on the TFP growth rate for EUINFP, research and development, and the interdependencies between EUINFP and private capital. These factors partially offset the dismal TFP performance of Spain over this period.

Transport infrastructure investments and competition for FDI

AbstractThis paper studies how transport infrastructure investments (TIIs) affect a bidding war for a firm between two asymmetric countries within a region in a context of imperfect competition, where TIIs play the role of a global public good, leading to a reduction in the unit trade cost between the two countries. A number of interesting results are derived from the model. In particular, TIIs can intensify fiscal competition between the two countries. Surprisingly, this conventional wisdom seems to be confirmed by this paper for the first time. Welfare implications of the model are also examined.

The efficiency of transport infrastructure investment and the role of government quality: An empirical analysis

In this article we analyze the efficiency of total transport investment in a sample of 34 countries over the period 1996 to 2010. We do so by way of Data Envelopment Analysis that evaluates countries according to their ability to achieve the maximum attainable infrastructure quantity and usage for a given investment volume. We find that the Central European countries, New Zealand and Japan are the most efficient when investing in transport infrastructure while the Eastern European countries, Russia, Turkey and Mexico are the least so. We moreover consider the role played by government quality when explaining cross-country differences in investment efficiency, based on truncated panel (and bootstrapped) regressions. We confirm the positive impact of government quality on efficiency even after controlling for a range of potentially confounding variables. Our analysis generates important policy implications for those concerned with the efficiency of transport infrastructure.

Prospects for European sustainable rail freight transport during economic austerity

PurposeEconomic growth is defined as growth in the capacity to meet individual and collective consumption demands. Decline in economic growth for a longer period (i.e. recession) occurs as a part of the “The Limits of Growth” concept. During such an economic crisis, three policy concepts can be implemented: “austerity”; “business as usual”; and “fiscal stimulus”. The purpose of this paper is to examine the economic response to the 2008 recession, in the area of sustainable transport system development, in Europe.Design/methodology/approachThe study assesses and identifies the need for investments in transport infrastructure, in particular rail, to remove barriers to developing a sustainable multimodal transport system. Towards this, by analysing secondary data collected from relevant online sources, the paper explores the prospects for sustainable rail freight transport development in Europe, during the recession period. For this, eight EU countries were selected, based on the length of railway lines in use: France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden and the UK.FindingsInvestment in five transport infrastructures were examined – road, rail, IWT, maritime ports and airports – and the research finds that overall, the “austerity” policy was implemented for investment in rail infrastructure, whereas a modest “stimulus” policy can be observed for investment in road infrastructure. The average investment in IWT infrastructure had a “stimulus” policy, whereas the average investment in Maritime port and Airport infrastructure suggests a “business as usual” policy. Of the various approaches taken in the recent recession period, European rail transport appears to have fared least well.Research limitations/implicationsTo some extent, the research is limited by lack of some data (e.g. data unavailability on the UK airport infrastructure investment from year 2006).Practical implicationsThe findings of the research will encourage policy makers in national government to invest in sustainable transport infrastructure.Originality/valueThe study suggests that there is a lack of uniform policy response to the recession, in terms of investment in transport infrastructure, and that there is a significant difference between the policy goals set by the EU – modal shift from road to rail and/ IWT to develop a sustainable transport system – and their practice. The author argues for an integrative, common and action-oriented approach to sustainable rail freight system development, by European countries, to develop effective, Europe-wide rail freight corridors, under schemes such as Horizon 2020 and Shift2Rail.

Pricing and investment in alternative transport infrastructures

Pricing and investment decisions are not independent; causality in the relationship cuts both ways. Optimal prices, once the investment has been made and is irreversible, are quite different compared with the situation contemplated in the ex-ante evaluation of the project, when no cost is already sunk, and various capacity options are still open. This paper deals with this critical aspect of the relationship in the planning process, when deciding on alternative transport infrastructures. Pricing affects demand and, hence, social welfare. The social profitability of the project can vary significantly depending on the pricing policy. Therefore, before deciding whether it is socially worthwhile to invest in a project, the government needs to be clear about the charging scheme that will be applied. In this paper we show that, when comparing different transport alternatives, a particular charging scheme may favor the creation of a particular transport infrastructure network, leading to irreversible long-term equilibria that would not be optimal under other charging schemes.

Rail transit development in lagging regions: A development-oriented investment and financing approach

Transportation infrastructure investment can play a significant role in promoting urban development. How can governments finance expensive rail transit investments and promote urban development in lagging regions? This paper reviews a case in Chongqing, China, a municipality that proactively invested in rail transit development through a mechanism of land value capture and guided rapid urbanization. We use path analysis to test the assumption that the rail transit system investment, which is directly linked to the amount of available government reserve land, was an important determinant in promoting urban development. We found that the availability of government reserve land alone cannot promote urban development. However, building transportation infrastructure on government reserve land serves as the catalyst to foster urban development. We see this development-oriented investment and financing approach as promising for raising funds for rail transit investment in other lagging regions in the world.

A system view of smart mobility and its implications for Ghanaian cities

Urbanisation in the cities of Sub-Saharan Africa has been associated with urban sprawl and increased vehicular traffic, which undermine the agglomeration effects of the cities on socioeconomic development. These adverse effects will exacerbate as the human population of the region continues to increase. Some scholars argue that making the cities mobility-smart could mitigate the adverse effects of urbanisation in the region. However, the conventional literature on smart mobility in Sub-Saharan Africa does little to demonstrate how the concept can be applied. In this regard, the purpose of this study is two pronged: a) to assess the mobility smartness of Ghanaian cities and b) to demonstrate how the concept can be operationalised to mitigate some of the adverse effects of urbanisation in the cities. The research process began with a review of relevant literature to conceptualise smart mobility. The conceptual framework was then used to assess the mobility-smartness of Ghanaian cities, which was followed by a discussion of how the concept of smart cities can be operationalised in Ghanaian cities. The results show that the cities in Ghana, like many cities in Sub-Saharan Africa, depend mainly on the road sub-sector for the movement of people and freight. The rapid increases in vehicular population without a commensurate expansion in road infrastructure have undermined the cities’ productivity. The conclusion from this is that the cities are not mobility-smart and for this to change, the paper argues that efforts should be made to improve people mobility, information logistic mobility and information mobility. These require technological literate and receptive population and investments in transport infrastructure.

Illuminating the World Cup effect: Night lights evidence from South Africa

AbstractThis paper evaluates the economic impact of the $14 billion preparatory infrastructure investments for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. We use satellite data on night light luminosity at municipality and electoral district level as a proxy for economic activity, applying synthetic control methods for estimation. For the average World Cup municipality, we find significantly positive, short‐run effects before the tournament, corresponding to a reduction of unemployment by 1.3 percentage points. At the electoral district level, we reveal distinct effect heterogeneity, where especially investments in transport infrastructure are shown to have long‐lasting, positive effects, particularly in rural areas.

Is transportation infrastructure cost recoverable under the risk of disasters?

This study examines cost recoverability, or whether or not the expected revenue from the optimal congestion toll exceeds the cost of optimal investment in transportation infrastructure, when its capacity is uncertain owing to significantly large disasters whose loss cannot be hedged, either by any saving or insurance. The government controls the degree of reliability of the entire transportation system by combining two types of infrastructure, namely, unstable infrastructure, whose capacity decreases when a disaster occurs, and stable infrastructure, whose capacity is constant regardless of the occurrence of disaster. Under the assumption of risk-averse preferences of households, the theorem of cost recovery does not hold even if the congestion toll is controlled in a completely flexible manner, given any incidents. The optimally designed unstable (stable) infrastructure is (not) cost recoverable because the benefit of investment mitigating the risk premium in social welfare is not covered by the revenue of the congestion toll. We also show that if the transportation cost is specified by a linear function, The entire transportation infrastructure is not cost recoverable, if price elasticity of transport demand is less than one, as many empirical studies have shown.

Adaptation investments for transport resilience: trends and recommendations

Climate change, extreme weather and flooding threaten to increase damage and disruption to our transport networks and the services that they provide. There is increased need for adaptation to maintain current asset conditions and services, and a strategic requirement to prioritise such investments in adaptation to reduce future risks. Physical network risks will not be evenly distributed across nations (e.g. due to geographical and climate change patterns), and some regions will require more investment and adaptive interventions than others to maintain services due their vulnerability to natural hazards. Comparatively, the distribution of investment for transport infrastructure does not have a uniform spatial distribution, and can favour schemes that reduce congestion on networks with high demand without considering the actual risk of being impacted. These two issues, if unchallenged, will present an unfavourable future for areas with high network risks and low transport demand that will widen spatial inequality or resilience, mobility and potential for economic growth. This study advances a method- ological framework to analyse the spatial distribution of flood risk on UK road and rail networks in the light of potential bias of regional investment. Using GIS mapping, network data and risk analysis, regional futures are categorised and discussed. There is a clear North/South divide in transport networks at risk from potential coastal and fluvial flooding, with southern regions having 10–30% of their network situated in known flood risk areas. Investment in transport infrastructure is also disproportionately favoured towards regions with high transport demand, and peripheral regional such as wales and the South west are at risk from increase disparity from high flood risk networks and a low potential for investment. The study provides preliminary evidence for the need to consider assessment approaches for long-term investment in resilience, drawing recommendations for future research.

Regional Assessment of Current and Future States of GHGs Emissions: Impacts of Transportation Policy Scenarios

Estimating the future state of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and air quality associated with transportation policies and infrastructure investments is key to the development of meaningful transportation and planning decisions. This study describes the design and application of an integrated transportation emission model for the prediction of GHGS in CO2eq in the Greater Montreal Region as a result of transport policy scenarios and Land use scenarios. For this purpose, a travel demand model linked with models for traffic assignment and emissions, was used to simulate GHG emissions in a base year (2008) and a horizon year (2031) while incorporating population and demographic projections. Various stakeholders were consulted in the development of future scenarios affecting land-use and transportation through a web-based survey and workshop.In the 2031 business as usual scenario, an average decrease of 30% in GHG emissions was estimated compared to the 2008 base case. This decrease is primarily attributed to projected improvements in vehicle technology. The modelling system was used to evaluate the impact of a 20% market penetration in electric vehicles, revealing significant reductions in GHG emissions across the region. Work is currently underway to estimate the emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and NO2 concentrations to assess air quality and individuals’ daily exposure by tracking activity locations and trajectories of the population and observe the level of reduction in daily exposures compared to the base case.This study is funded by a collaborative grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and Ouranos.

Informing transport infrastructure investments using TraNSIT: A case study for Australian agriculture and forestry

Transport infrastructure is essential to moving over 85 million tonnes of agricultural products and 30 million cubic metres of timber from farms and production areas to domestic and international markets each year in Australia. Agriculture supply chains in Australia are characterised by long distances with transport costs accounting for up to 40 percent of the market price. Targeted infrastructure investment and/or regulatory changes can substantially reduce transport-related logistics costs. To provide a comprehensive view of transport logistics costs and benefits due to infrastructure investments and regulatory changes in agriculture and forestry supply chains, CSIRO developed a computer-based tool – the Transport Network Strategic Investment Tool (TraNSIT). TraNSIT optimises transport routes for upto hundreds of thousands of enterprises and millions of vehicle trips between farms and their markets, providing information on routing to maximise cost efficiencies. Through an Australian Government initiative, TraNSIT was applied to over 30 commodities representing 98% of Australian agricultural and plantation forestry volume transported by road and rail. TraNSIT is now a comprehensive logistics tool that has been applied to the largest agricultural supply chain dataset ever assembled in Australia. This paper provides an overview of TraNSIT, its adaptation to agriculture and forestry logistics as part of the project, and its application to several case studies in Australia including new road links, rail versus road and flooding.

The Evolution of Sino-Russian Relations as Seen from Moscow: The Limits of Strategic Rapprochement

In the past few years, there has been a significant economic and political rapprochement between China and Russia, marked by the announcement of numerous trade agreements and investments in transport infrastructure and the exploitation of Russian natural resources. This cooperation seems to have intensified since the 2014 Ukrainian crisis. Some European and American media see it as a sign that China and Russia are developing a form of strategic alliance that could harm Western interests. This article analyses the different forms of Sino-Russian rapprochement whilst highlighting the economic and political limits of this cooperation.

Major transport infrastructure investment and regional economic development – An accessibility-based approach

Territorial cohesion and improvement of accessibility can be considered the main goals that are at the core of the EU Cohesion Policy. Yet, while there exists an abundant literature on the impact of transport infrastructure investment on the overall accessibility level, very few studies try to verify the possible link between accessibility and regional economic development. This issue seems to be particularly interesting in the case of the EU's New Member States that have experienced a big push to develop their transportation networks in the last decade. Hence, in the present paper we apply the potential accessibility indicator for Poland in order to verify the general productivity effects of major transport infrastructure investments between 2004 and 2014. We find that accessibility improvement seems to be weakly but positively correlated with growth in regional employment. However, the impact on the growth of regional production is not statistically significant. We also find that, once nonlinearity is assumed, accessibility improvement does not have a statistically significant impact on urban areas. At the same time it is in fact negatively correlated with output growth in the case of rural areas.

Empirical Evidence from EU-28 Countries on Resilient Transport Infrastructure Systems and Sustainable Economic Growth

This paper examines the nexus between the main forms of transport, related investments, specific air pollutants, and sustainable economic growth. The research is important since transport may act as a facilitator of social, economic, and environmental development. Based on data retrieved from Eurostat, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and World Bank, the output of fixed-effects regressions for EU-28 countries over 1990–2016 reveals that road, inland waterways, maritime, and air transport infrastructure positively influence gross domestic product per capita (GDPC), though a negative link occurred in the case of railway transport. As concerning investments in transport infrastructure, the empirical results exhibit a positive impact on economic growth for every type of transport, except inland waterways. Besides, emissions of CO2 from all kind of transport, alongside other specific air pollutants, negatively influence GDPC. The fully modified and dynamic ordinary least squares panel estimation results reinforce the findings. Further, in the short-run, Granger causality based on panel vector error correction model pointed out a unidirectional causal link running from sustainable economic growth to inland waterways and maritime transport of goods, albeit a one-way causal link running from the volume of goods transported by air to GDPC. As well, the empirical results provide support one-way short-run links running from GDPC to investments in road and inland waterway transport infrastructure. In addition, a bidirectional short-run link occurred between carbon dioxide emissions from railway transport and GDPC, whereas unidirectional relations with economic growth were identified in the case of carbon dioxide emissions from road and domestic aviation. In the long-run, a bidirectional causal relation was noticed between the length of the railways lines, investments in railway transport infrastructure, and GDPC, as well as a two-way causal link between the gross weight of seaborne goods handled in ports and GDPC.