Appraising Transport Investments in a Regulatory Regime

There has been considerable work in recent years improving the methods for the appraisal of transport investments under conditions of imperfect competition which gives rise to possible wider economic benefits. This paper examines the further situation where the market for transport operates under a range of regulatory regimes. This develops the issues which may arise in the appraisal of investments by various forms of public-private partnerships where there may be different objectives for the private and public sectors. The paper discusses the issues involved in different forms of regulatory regime on the basis of experience with regulated transport markets in the U.K. and the European Union's trans-European networks to assess the effects on investment decisions which fall into different regulatory regimes.