After centuries of neglect, the land transport corridors connecting Asia and Europe are on the brink of a rebirth. From practically nothing, a revived network of these land corridors is likely to lead to a considerable share of the freight revenues being generated by the increased trade between Asia and Europe. That is why there is fierce competition among the major players for control in shaping the Asia-Europe railway transport corridors. However, there are also new and exciting possibilities for cooperation among the various players. We will extensively examine and evaluate the transport corridors linking Asia and Europe. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project will be assessed from the perspectives of the three countries involved: Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. It has been shown that the railroad will economically strengthen the region and better integrate the three host countries into international transport corridors. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad will certainly play a key role in helping to revive the Silk Road connection, thereby creating common interests and facilitating the transformation of the region. The BTK transport corridor will not only stimulate the economies of the countries involved but help wean them their off oil-dependence and restore their rightful place as major commercial hubs along the once-legendary Silk Road. The attraction of direct foreign investment and establishment of partnerships between the public and private sectors are key issues that will be explored in-depth in this book. By 2025, the region is expected to become a prosperous financial sector and transit area; a comprehensive strategy to that end which incorporates the principles of sustainable growth is being formulated by the countries involved.

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Revitalizing railways as a major sustainable transport mode in modern societies faces many issues and challenges. This in-depth overview places the importance of railways in the wider context of comprehensive sustainability, which encompasses sustainable development, social and economic equity and community livability. Some scholars have described the 21st century as a period of renaissance for railways and suggest this transport mode can fulfil people's desire for high mobility with low negative environmental, social, economic and financial impacts. In light of these new expectations for railways, in both passenger and freight transport worldwide, this book offers the latest research insights on the renewed interest about railway expansions and their wide-ranging environmental, socio-economic and even political implications.

Much work has been done on port governance yet little has addressed intermodal terminal governance, despite the clear similarities. This book fills that gap by establishing a governance framework for situating analysis of intermodal terminals throughout their life cycle. A version of the product life cycle theory is amended with governance theory to produce a framework covering each stage of the terminal’s life cycle, from the initial planning to the many decisions taken regarding the public/private split in funding mechanisms, ownership, selecting an operator, specifying KPIs to the operator, setting fees, earning profit, ensuring fair access to all rail service operators, and finally to reconcessioning the terminal to a new operator, managing the handover and maintaining the terminal throughout its life cycle. An institutional analysis of stakeholder relations, situated within a governance framework, illuminates these issues and enables not only conceptualisation and greater understanding of the geography of intermodal transport, but also decision-making and goal-setting by planners and policy makers. This book thus has three functions: first, as a textbook on the planning and operation of intermodal terminals; second, as a presentation of recent empirical research on intermodal terminal governance; third, as a framework for future research in which the broad field of analysis of intermodal transport can be viewed through a single lens and used to inform geographers, policymakers and planners.

An examination of how post-9/11 security concerns have transformed the public view and governance of infrastructure. After September 11, 2001, infrastructures—the mundane systems that undergird much of modern life—were suddenly considered “soft targets” that required immediate security enhancements. Infrastructure protection quickly became the multibillion dollar core of a new and expansive homeland security mission. In this book, Ryan Ellis examines how the long shadow of post-9/11 security concerns have remade and reordered infrastructure, arguing that it has been a stunning transformation. Ellis describes the way workers, civic groups, city councils, bureaucrats, and others used the threat of terrorism as a political resource, taking the opportunity not only to address security vulnerabilities but also to reassert a degree of public control over infrastructure. Nearly two decades after September 11, the threat of terrorism remains etched into the inner workings of infrastructures through new laws, regulations, technologies, and practices. Ellis maps these changes through an examination of three U.S. infrastructures: the postal system, the freight rail network, and the electric power grid. He describes, for example, how debates about protecting the mail from anthrax and other biological hazards spiraled into larger arguments over worker rights, the power of large-volume mailers, and the fortunes of old media in a new media world; how environmental activists leveraged post-9/11 security fears over shipments of hazardous materials to take on the rail industry and the chemical lobby; and how otherwise marginal federal regulators parlayed new mandatory cybersecurity standards for the electric power industry into a robust system of accountability.