This chapter attempts to bring together various complex relationships involving freight, industry and industrial location, and considers how they affect the transport sector. It first examines industrial strategy within the Single European Market (SEM), especially the role of transport costs in this strategy. It then outlines the European Commission's plan for road, rail and inland shipping networks, and priority projects for European transport infrastructure. Two important aspects of industry and transport are considered: (1) industry's knowledge of transport costs; and (2) changes in industrial operations that are greatly increasing the emphasis on transport. The distortion of European Community industrial markets through non-tariff barriers and transport markets through government intervention has reduced the role of transport costs in industrial decision making. Much transport forecasting and policy seems to have been based on incorrect assumptions.
Abstract