At present, the planned investment in transport infrastructure in many European countries cannot cater for the growth in demand that will result from increased traffic flows. Such investment is very costly, and has many effects on regional development, wealth distribution and public well-being. The need to protect the environment suggests that the construction of more infrastructure will be limited, and that any planned increases in capacity will be optimised. These factors have led to an appraisal of the reliability of methods of evaluating the relevant investment choices. This conference proceedings describes the techniques used for this purpose by three member countries of the European Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT): (1) Spain; (2) Austria; (3) France. It assesses the techniques, compares the experience acquired in individual countries and the effectiveness of their methods, and examines the conditions governing their use. A long summary is given of the Round Table debate on the three national reports for Spain, Austria and France which are abstracted separately, and covers: (1) methods of evaluation in a changing context; (2) integration of different models into policy choices; (3) the conclusions of the debate. For abstracts of the papers presented at this conference see C 18934 - C 18936 (IRRD 854468-854470).
Abstract