Evaluation of Infrastructure Investments: The Case of the Southern Italian Transport Network

The EU Community Support Framework (CSF), in the transport sector, aims at implementing a sustainable network characterised by a more balanced modal split – both in passengers and in freight transport – and by an integrated connectivity among the transport nodes along these lines. It follows the main goals of the 2001 White Book on Transport and it also tends to support sustainable dynamics of local development. Such strategy wants to: a) strengthen the links of southern local nodes and terminals with national networks; b) improve the links among local southern networks and the overall quality of service; c) pursue a balanced modal split both in urban and in freight transport. Consequently, the Italian National Operational Programme (PON from Piano Operativo Nazionale) and Regional Operational Programmes (POR from Piano Operativo Regionale), spanning since 2001 to 2006, should have been developed according to the above-mentioned goals. This study provides a concise description of CSF, PON and POR programs and to test – by means of a multicriteria approach – the degree of coherence among them. The evaluation is based on the following macro-criteria: a) degree of accessibility; b) modal shift; c) intermodality; d) urban mobility; e) quality and efficiency; f) reduction of environmental impact. Each of them will be characterised by one or more indicators which will allow to assign a quantitative/qualitative measure to each of the infrastructure investments considered. The results highlight that the strategy pursued during the 2001-2006 period aimed at strengthening some priority nodes located in the TEN-T network. Moreover, it was possible to ascertain a relevant heterogeneity between PON projects, that follow a global perspective, and POR projects, mainly focused on the local networks.