The development of world trade has led to an unprecedented increase in international transport and has created bottlenecks at the big hubs and transhipment points. Transport capacity planning is still a national domain and this can lead to serious shortcomings in capacity development. Prestige projects can take a substantial share of available public budgets, while unspectacular upgrades and maintenance work is neglected. The first four chapters of this paper are dedicated to major trends, transport capacity requirements, quality of service and the European approach to meeting these challenges; chapter 5 discusses the weaknesses of the European freight transport system. This sections of this paper are as follows: Introduction; Global trends in international transport development; Quantitative and qualitative restrictions to growth; The European response: trans-European networks; The challenge of making better use of infrastructure; and Conclusions: transport infrastructure needs reconsidered. For the covering abstract see ITRD E141216.
Samenvatting