Proposal for harmonised guidelines for the integrated assessment of transport projects in Europe

Abstract

In this report harmonised guidelines for the assessment of trans-national projects in Europe are proposed. This includes the provision of a consistent framework for monetary valuation based on the principles of welfare economics, contributing to transport costing. Recommendations for infrastructure project appraisal are given covering the following elements: • General issues (incl. non-market valuation techniques, benefit transfer, treatment of nonmonetised impacts, discounting and intra-generational equity issues, decision criteria, project appraisal evaluation period, treatment of future risk and uncertainty, marginal costs of public funds, producer surplus of transport providers, the treatment of indirect socio-economic effects), • Value of time and congestion (incl. business passenger traffic, non-work passenger traffic, commercial goods traffic time savings and treatment of congestion, unexpected delays and reliability), • Value of changes in accident risks (incl. accident impacts considered, estimating accident risks, valuing accident costs), • Environmental costs (incl. air pollution, noise, global warming), • Costs and indirect impacts of infrastructure investments (incl. capital costs for project implementation, costs for maintenance, operation and administration, changes in infrastructure costs on existing networks, optimism bias, residual value).