Planning of National Transport Infrastructure
In the Islamic Countries
22
Arts et al. (2014) also observed that spatial development and transport infrastructure
development are traditionally planned in different sectors, by different authorities in different
institutional settings.
According to OECD/ITF (2017), France has successfully replaced its strategic planning from sub-
sectoral transport master plans with a multimodal approach. This approach is not only shown
in the attention tomultimodal interchanges and interconnections and the impact of, for example,
rail projects on the road network, but also in the emphasis on value-for-money in projects across
the modes. The transport master plan also facilitates decision making on territorial and urban
development that is dependent on the transport network and enables forward planning of
dependent and complementary infrastructure, e.g. in the case of high-speed rail, associated
development or redundancy of the conventional network. These objectives are clearly set out in
the master plans.
One of the strengths of the French planning system is the requirement to undertake systematic
ex-post assessments of public infrastructure investments . This yields the results i The
high-speed lines were built in order of expected rate of return. Ex-post yields are systematically
lower but essentially in the same order. The two projects that break the pattern both saw
passenger numbers affected by the later-than-expected construction of the Channel Tunnel rail
link, HS1, in the UK.
Table 3: Ex-ante/ex-post comparisons of socio-economic rates of return for high-speed rail
lines
Year opened Project
Economic
internal rate of
return Principal Explanation
Ex-
ante
Ex-
post
1992 Atlantique 23.6% 14.0% Traffic and revenues higher than forecast, but
heavy cost overruns (more than 20%).
1993
Extended to
Belgium
1996
Nord-Europe 20.3% 5.0% Traffic below forecasts largely due to late
development of HS1 in the UK; revenues close to
forecast thanks to increased fares, but 20%
infrastructure cost overrun.
1994 Interconnexion
Ile-de-France
14.1% 6.9% Traffic increases below forecast and overruns on
rolling stock and operatinfg costs.
1994 Rhône-Alpes
(Valence)
14.0% 10.6% Benchmark traffic below forecast and overruns
on rolling stock and operating costs.
2001 Méditerranée 11.0% 8.1% Traffic close to forecast but overruns on rolling
stock and operating costs.
2007 Est 8.5% 4.2% Cost overruns (+20.2%) partially offset by
higher-than-expected traffic
Source: Bilans LOTI
In EU Member States, Strategic Environmental Assessment is a formal requirement, based on
Directive 2001/42/EC on the assessment of the effects of certain plans and programmes on the
environment (known as the SEA Directive). Another good practice outside Europe is the
guideline for Planning and EIA of Road Infrastructure that was produced by the Government of
Botswana in 2001. The guideline provides a comprehensive technical basis for decision making