PLANNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE EUROPE? - TU Berlin

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For roads, it might be a bypass round Budapest for example or a particular seed
investment in terminals for combined transport. 28
More importantly, Short reminded his Brussels audience that “bottlenecks are not
all physical” and that “there is a tendency to overdimension projects once they are on the
maps. Motorways or high speed trains are not needed everywhere” (p.3). This comment
is particularly insightful in light of current Pan-European infrastructure plans for the
Central European candidate countries, where ambitions for infrastructure expansion are at
a particularly drastic mismatch with actual funding and planning capabilities, and indeed,
as Short correctly notes, also with actual needs.
Finally, the dramatic resurgence of the bottlenecks storyline also points to another
key issue in need of further discussion, namely the persistent interdependence of Pan-
European and urban interests with regard to infrastructure expansion. Apart from
bottlenecks at natural barriers (e.g. Alpine tunnels) and national borders, congestion is
primarily related to urban densities. This is a circumstance that opens the way for both
cooperation and conflict (see esp. Chapter 7).
6.4 Conclusions: The Challenge of Prioritizing Investments
The difficulties in agreeing on a common European transport policy, of course,
have much to do with the fact that it is difficult to define its prime beneficiaries. From a
public welfare perspective, the key consideration for any investment is the optimal use of
public funds to the greatest possibly benefit of all populations in the affected regions.
One therefore also has to ask the question whether new investment into transport
infrastructures should be the priority strategy at all. Other investments, especially road
28 Note that in the specific case of Budapest, international, and more specifically EU (EIB) involvement in