Transport Investment and Disadvantaged Regions: UK and European Policies since the 1950s

Abstract

This article outlines transport investment policies for older industrial regions with higher unemployment. It examines the motivation behind such policies and compares them with transport policies for other regions. The growth of political and economic competition between problem industrial regions and other regions of disadvantage or growth potential is emphasised. The principal conclusions are that transport policies should not be dominated by the topic of infrastructure investment; that neither inter-regional nor intra-regional transport investment will promote sustained growth in disadvantaged regions if other favourable conditions are lacking; and that a skewing of transport investment towards disadvantaged regions may improve their relative economic position if well integrated with other policies to promote change in the distribution between regions of population and productivity. An increasing role for private sector finance, rail investment and direct road pricing is anticipated within future policies for transport, regional development and environmental improvement.

Connecting the periphery: distributive effects of new infrastructure

“…New additions generally do not lead to major shifts in accessibility, either in major travel time savings or transport cost reductions (Vickerman et al, 1999;Rietveld and Nijkamp, 2000), perhaps with the exception of new types of advanced transportation infrastructure such as high-speed trains (Vickerman, 1995) or when connecting peripheral regions such as islands or enclaves. It appears that in advanced economies new transport infrastructure is not the key driver of economic growth but rather plays a supporting role, as growth is dependent on a range of other economic, investment, political and institutional conditions (Banister and Berechman, 2000;Sharp, 1980;Hart, 1993;Rietveld and Nijkamp, 2000). This would also explain the rather limited effect of changes in accessibility on shifts in employment generally found by empirical analyses (Dodgson, 1974;Nelson et al, 1994;Linneker and Spence, 1996;Bruinsma et al, 1997;Rietveld and Nijkamp, 2000;Holvad and Preston, 2005;Pugh and Fairburn, 2008).…”

Study on the Relationship between Land Transport and Economic Growth in Xinjiang

“…Studies have shown that several cities in the same region have adopted the same strategy of increasing transportation investment to promote local economic development, but the results differ. Transport investment does not necessarily lead to economic development; only under certain conditions can transportation investment stimulate and promote economic development [24,25].…”

Factors influencing the location of new motorways: large scale motorway building in Spain

“…Spain's 1978 Constitution introduced a territorial organisation and with it an important process of political decentralisation and an emphasis on policies to enforce territorial equity (De la Fuente and Gundin, 2008). At the same time, infrastructure investment has also been justified as regional development aid (Hart, 1993). This is based on the view that income disparities are primarily caused by regional disparities in the endowment of key factors of production.…”