The Infrastructural Challenge for Future Transportation — Some Critical Issues

Abstract

In almost every industrial investment decision the infrastructure of the transport sector is taken for granted. The same goes for the government’s long term economic planning and most of the policymaking in fields like social welfare, education, regional policy and employment. And rightly so, when we take into account the very long run that applies to the planning and construction of such basic facilities as railways, airports, road networks etc. The investment needs that we identify today will normally take between ten and fifteen years of planning, decisionmaking and construction to complete (if they are possible at all). Then we will use these constructions for 30–40 years (or perhaps even longer). We need to make the right investments, because the expenses will be so high that we will not be able to afford to correct any mistakes within a reasonable period of time. The conclusion is that what we are planning for today will to an important extent define our transport conditions for the next fifty years or so.