This Round Table presents three papers focusing on the evolution of international transport costs over the past decades and the benefits expected from investment in transport facilities and the reduction of the costs of crossing borders.
The Round Table discussed the role of the transport sector in supporting regional economic integration. The event was hosted by the Hellenic Institute of Transport, Thessaloniki.
This Round Table presents three papers focusing on the evolution of international transport costs over the past decades and the benefits expected from investment in transport facilities and the reduction of the costs of crossing borders.
For the majority of transport policies and projects, time savings rank among the most important benefits. Consequently, time valuation standards and conventions play a crucial role in the evaluation of transport policies and infrastructure investment projects. This Round Table revisited the extended literature on the valuation of passenger time and discussed the under-researched topic of the value of time in freight transport. It assessed the increased value of time in international freight transport, given the trend towards globalisation. In particular, urban planners are concerned that an overvaluation of passenger time could give rise to excessive urban infrastructure investment which would induce low-density development of cities and urban sprawl. Transport policy measures that increase the speed and reliability of freight transport not only reduce its direct costs but have strong effects on inventory policies, logistics and even the location of firms. As recent empirical studies show, variations in time requirements for international transport, and increasingly short product and fashion cycles, have an influence on the pattern of foreign direct investment and international trade flows. Rational transport policy decision making has to take account of these indirect effects.
To mark its hundredth Round Table on transport economics, the ECMT decided to publish a special issue. Fifty European experts were asked to submit papers examining not only the major issues addressed by transport economics in the past, but also those that are likely to emerge in the future.
As the countries of Central and Eastern Europe undergo radical economic upheavals, the question of pan-European transport is examined in this Round Table.
The Round Table looks at how the European railway landscape is being reshaped. In doing so, it presents lessons which stand to benefit transport policy throughout Europe.
International specialists at Round Table 78 compare notes on such vital telematics issues as: the strategies adopted in the sector; forms of standardization called for; productivity gains and the obstacles involved.