The Strategic Role of New Infrastructure Networks in Europe

Europe is—after the implementation of the internal market—moving toward an integrated network economy, in which network infrastructure will play a crucial role. Apart from policies oriented toward an adjustment of transport demand or an extension of conventional transport modes, we witness an increasing interest in long-term strategic transport systems development in Europe. Various strategic evaluation criteria for such new European infrastructures will be discussed in this chapter. In addition, a comparative analysis of different new infrastructures (ICE, TGV, Channel Tunnel, etc.) will be given. In particular, attention will be focused on the identification of critical success factors for the implementation of new infrastructure in Europe.