Ove Arup & Partners International Limited (Arup) was commissioned by the European Union to prepare a Regional Transport Plan for the Brest Euroborder Region as part of an ongoing Tacis Programme for Cross Border Co-operation. Brest is a city located on the Belarus-Poland border and is the major transit bottleneck on the Helsinki Corridor 2 between Berlin, Warsaw, Minsk and Moscow. The study was commissioned in January 2000 and completed in December 2000. The primary aim of the study was to reduce road and rail delays, including significant haulage delays at the main border crossings by improving the border facilities and regional roads. The brief also entailed maintaining local accessibility through infrastructure development and training of operatives. The study findings showed that the delays were a symptom of deeper problems, some of which relate to the economic conditions in the region including social deprivation. The study also examined measures to ameliorate the effects of Poland's plan to accede to the European Union and the resulting growing dichotomy of wealth between Poland and Belarus. This paper reports on the measures both physical and institutional that were recommended to improve road and rail transport links through the border. It also examines methods in which funding agencies can assist in reducing the delays at the border through a coherent regional and transport planning strategy.
Abstract