Decision Framework for Cross-Border Railway Infrastructure Projects

Authors: Dimitrios J. Dimitriou, Maria F. Sartzetaki

Abstract:

Transport infrastructure assets are key components of the national asset portfolio. The decision to invest in a new infrastructure in transports could take from a few years to some decades. This is mainly because of the need to reserve and spent many capitals, the long payback period, the number of the stakeholders involved in decision process and –many times- the investment and business risks are high. Therefore, the decision assessment framework is an essential challenge linked with the key decision factors meet the stakeholder expectations highlighting project trade-offs, financial risks, business uncertainties and market limitations. This paper examines the decision process for new transport infrastructure projects in cross border regions, where a wide range of stakeholders with different expectation is involved. According to a consequences analysis systemic approach, the relationship of transport infrastructure development, economic system development and stakeholder expectation is analyzed. Adopting the on system of system methodological approach, the decision making framework, variables, inputs and outputs are defined, highlighting the key shareholder’s role and expectations. The application provides the methodology outputs presenting the proposed decision framework for a strategic railway project in north Greece deals with the upgrade of the existing railway corridor connecting Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria.

Keywords: System of system approach, decision making, cross-border, infrastructure project.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1127438

References:

[1] Pekka Mild, Juuso Liesiö, Ahti Salo Selecting infrastructure maintenance projects with Robust Portfolio Modeling, Decision Support Systems 77 (2015) 21–30
[2] Victor Codina Girones, Stefano Moret, François Marechal, Daniel Favrat, Strategic energy planning for large-scale energy systems: A modelling framework to aid decision-making Energy 90 (2015) 173e186
[3] João Coutinho-Rodrigues, Ana Simão, Carlos Henggeler Antunes, A GIS-based multicriteria spatial decision support system for planning urban infrastructures, Decision Support Systems 51 (2011) 720–726
[4] Gregory Rowangould, Public financing of private freight rail infrastructure to reduce highway congestion: A case study of public policy and decision making in the United States, Transportation Research Part A 57 (2013) 25–36
[5] Cathy Macharis, Annalia Bernardini, Reviewing the use of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis for the evaluation of transport projects: Time for a multi-actor approach, Transport Policy 37 (2015) 177–186
[6] D. Browne, L. Ryan, Comparative analysis of evaluation techniques for transport policies, Environ. Impact Assess. Rev., 31 (2011), pp. 226–233
[7] J.C. Lourenço, A. Morton, C.A. Bana e Costa, PROBE — a multicriteria decision support system for portfolio robustness evaluation, Decision Support Systems, 54 (2012), pp. 534–550
[8] T. Parisini. Control systems technology: Towards a systems-of-systems perspective, IEEE Trans. on Control Systems Technology, vol. 18, no. 2, p. 249, March 2010.
[9] Datu Buyung Agusdinata, Daniel DeLaurenti, Specification of system-of-systems for policymaking in the energy sector, The Integrated Assessment Journal B ri d g i n g S cie n ces & P o l icy, 2008, 8(2):1–24
[10] Sheffield, J., Sankaran, S., and Haslett, T. (2012), “System thinking: Taming complexity in project management”, On the Horizon, Vol.20, No 2, pp. 126-136.
[11] M. W. Maier, “Architecting principles for systems-of-systems,” Systems Engineering, vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 267–284, 1998.
[12] Mostafavi, A., Abraham, D. M., DeLaurentis, D.A., and Sinfield, J. V. (2011), “Exploring the dimensions of systems of innovation analysis :A system of systems framework”, IEEE System Journal, Vol. 5, No 2, pp. 256-265.