Transport Papers
86 items available
Permanent URI for this collection
Items in this collection
1 - 6 of 6
-
Publication
World Bank’s Engagement with Transport in Cities: The Early Years
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-07)This study looks at the project practice in light of the strategy as declared in the sector paper. The main focus is on the first decade of the urban transport lending program (1972–82). By and large, this batch of projects adhered to the strategy, except there was little effort to engage with land use planning. Project investments included roads in slum areas, improvements of radial corridors and central area road networks, fleet and facilities for city- and state-owned public transport operators, and select investments in major road and urban rail projects. On the policy side, projects strove to improve cost recovery of public-owned transport operators, facilitate the private provision of public transport services, designate street space for exclusive use of buses, and introduce congestion charges. In the institutional dimension, projects assisted in setting up traffic management units and some form of metropolitan transport planning entities. Investment outcomes varied. Some projects were highly successful, notably the two projects in Brazil that focused on roads in slums and bus priority. Others were highly disappointing, as in Tehran, where the government went into major road building rather than pursue traffic management and public transport improvements championed by the project. Project policy initiatives produced mixed results with less than complete achievement of cost recovery in public transport services and a failure to introduce congestion charges. Improved regulation of privately provided public transport had several bright spots (e.g., Kuala Lumpur, Calcutta), but also persistent failures (e.g., Kingston). Efforts to set up traffic management units in the city government gave some very good results (e.g., Tunis), but the creation and nurture of metropolitan transport planning institutions turned out to be far more difficult. Overall, these pioneering efforts in both strategy and practice were well conceived and executed and played a catalytic role in most client cities. Weak aspects include overselling traffic management as a substitute (rather than a complement) to road investments, together with failing to evolve a constructive approach to urban road network development in rapidly growing cities. There were no attempts to tackle urban road funding as a part of the national road funding setup. Instead, over-optimistically, several projects attempted to introduce sophisticated price instruments such as congestion charging, which proved a long shot in the weak policy and institutional environments found in many client cities. -
Publication
Urban Transport Projects: Patterns and Trends in Lending, 1999-2009
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011)The study consisted of developing a compendium of profiles for all free-standing urban transport projects funded by the Bank in calendar years from 1999 through 2009, followed by a first-pass synthesis of patterns and trends. There were 50 such projects. In addition, profiles were done for several projects from this period which were classified as urban or transport, but with significant urban transport components. Also, profiles were done for several operations approved before 1999 or after 2009, because they formed organic sequences with some operations in the 1999-2009 batches, in the same city or the same country. In all, profiles were done for 56 operations. A list of these projects is in annex one. Full profiles are in annex two, grouped by the geographic region, and in the chronological order according to the date of loan approval. The sources consulted in writing the profiles included project appraisal documents, loan and project agreements, restructuring papers, and implementation completion reports. In addition to this introduction, the synthesis report has four chapters. In the next (second) chapter, a brief overview is provided of the batch of projects for which the profiles were done. Chapter three reviews urban transport programs by region. Chapter four presents outcome ratings for completed projects and issues related to their success or otherwise. Chapter five discusses the fit between the projects and a provisional version of the Bank's urban transport strategy. -
Publication
Urban Transport for Development : Towards an Operationally-Oriented Strategy
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-10)This paper arose from the perception that a gap existed between the practice of project design and the formal Bank strategies for transport and urban sectors as stated in the cited reports. Formal strategies tend to be too general to be linked meaningfully to project designs. The paper in hand attempts to close this gap by putting forward a different, operationally-oriented concept of urban transport strategy and derives one such strategy from a review of recent Bank-funded projects. The term "operationally-oriented" means that the strategy is expressed in terms of objectives, policies, institutions and investments, mimicking the structure common to all individual projects. Projects on which the paper is based date from the last 15 years. They exhibit a wide diversity of features, reflecting inherited local conditions, the nature and rhythms of socio-economic changes underway, and the vintage of client-Bank relations. Yet, a strong central tendency is also evident, amounting to a coherent and robust approach. The core strategy, as this approach is called in the paper, aims to protect and nurture public transport services and non-motorized transport modes, with underlying meta-objectives of equity and environmental sustainability. -
Publication
A Framework for Urban Transport Projects : Operational Guidance for World Bank Staff
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-01)This paper starts with a brief perspective on urban transport in developing countries, followed by a detailed presentation of an overall framework for making projects in this sector. Additional details on cities and projects used as case studies are given in the accompanying tables. The challenge for the Bank is to assist client cities in providing transport infrastructure and services that respond to demographic, spatial and economic growth in ways that balance the many different competing interests. Reflecting the importance that poverty and environmental factors are given in its development lending, the key strategic goal of the Bank is to protect and nurture public transport services and non-motorized transport modes, with underlying meta-objectives of equity and sustainability. In the policy dimension, the following approach features: (i) the equitable allocation of existing/new street space to protect and nurture public transport, and non-motorized modes; (ii) a for-the market rather than in the market, on the street competitive model for public transport, with services operated by the private sector under strong public regulation, and oversight; (iii) a financially viable public transport system, with affordable fares commensurate with costs, and any necessary subsidies targeted to those in need; (iii) appropriate user charges for urban roads (parking and traffic); and (iv) feedback from transport demand to resource mobilization from within the sector. The investment dimension of the approach is increasingly oriented towards the provision and rehabilitation of public transport systems operating on exclusive rights of way, both roadway and rail-based, because of their potential for efficient, high-quality services as well as for being a vehicle for progress on several policy fronts. The final chapter illustrates a variety of ways in which this framework is reflected in the design of actual Bank-funded urban transport projects. -
Publication
Towards a Discussion of Support to Urban Transport Development in India
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-03)The purpose of this policy note is to respond to the request from the Government of India for the World Bank to provide support to the development of the urban transport agenda in India and to provide lending support. During the discussions between the World Bank and the Government of India represented by the Ministry of Finance, the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) agreed on a three year program of support 2005-2008 reflected in the World Bank's Country Strategy for India September 15, 2004. Support is currently reflected in the operations program as an urban transport project under consideration and as a policy note as part of the non-lending services. In conjunction with these operations support to urban roads are included in Chennai under the Tamil Nadu Third Urban Development Project and in Bangalore under the Karnataka Municipal Reform Project. -
Publication
Urban Transport in Chennai and Bangalore
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2004-03)This report is intended to facilitate the discussions between the World Bank and the Governments of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, City Governments of Chennai and Bangalore, on possibly expanding the Bank's urban transport assistance in these two cities, and elsewhere in the two states. The report consists of a diagnostic chapter, a discussion of pivotal issues, a reformulated strategy, and a menu of possible Bank-funded projects to support this strategy. Case studies of urban transport in Chennai and Bangalore, the basis for the report, are attached.